Cherry Blossom Blooming (Book Two)
by grimrose
Summary: Haruno Sakura thinks she understands a little better the ins and outs of being a ninja. But between dangerous tasks, traitorous allies, stirrings of romance, and one psychopath with a dangerous interest in her, she's going to need all her cunning to come out on the other side of the Chuunin Exams alive.
1. Chapter 1

**Book Two**

1.

When I went downstairs for breakfast, dressed in my kunoichi outfit, on the morning of the second test of the Chuunin Exams, both my parents were waiting around the kitchen table. I paused in surprise.

"Dad," I said, "shouldn't you have left for work already?"

"I wanted to stay back to see you go," said Dad, and then both my parents stood up, came around the table, and hugged me tightly.

"Be safe," my mother whispered raggedly into my ear. Maybe it was the pack I had with me or how dangerous my last two big missions had been, but they seemed to grasp for the first time just how dangerous this thing I was going into could be.

When they stood back, there were tears in their eyes. "We're so proud of you," my father said. My mother couldn't speak. And all they could do was watch me leave. How terrifying would that be?

Trying to break the tension, I went around the table, grabbed something, and smiled as I held up the blueberry muffin, beginning to walk out the door. "Late for things, as usual," I said, and in a watery way, my mother smiled. Then I shut the door behind me and they were gone.

* * *

I hurried down the streets, walking down the river and past the bridge to meet my teammates. They both had packs with them as well. We fell into step beside each other, heading out toward training area 44, which was on the edge of the village. We hadn't gotten very far when we heard a shout behind us.

"Naruto! Wait up! Leader!"

We looked around. Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon ran up to us. Konohamaru stopped and put his hands on his knees, breathless.

"We - had to wish you luck -" he gasped out.

"Aww," I began, but Naruto was more canny.

"You want something? Right in the middle of the Chuunin Exams? Really?" he said. I was about to scold him, but then Konohamaru stood and grinned sheepishly.

"We have to do an article for the Academy school newspaper on the Chuunin Exams. We have to interview at least three Genin taking it. And we figured, since we already know you..."

"We don't have time for this," Sasuke muttered.

"Pleeeaaase?" Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon looked up at us with big eyes.

What could we say? A bit harried, we agreed. So they took us aside separately and asked us our questions. The questions seemed to have been written by their Sensei.

_Introduce yourself please? _

_My name is Haruno Sakura. I'm a Konoha Genin. I'll be thirteen in March. I'm not currently in a relationship, but I've been doing some dating. I like books, puzzles, and hanging out with my friends._

_What Genin team are you on? Introduce your teammates? _

_I'm on one of the newest rookie teams, Genin Team Seven. My teammates are Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto. They're... complete opposites. Sasuke's really serious all the time and Naruto's really funny and energetic. They seem mean to each other, but they're really friends. Just don't tell them I said that. They complete each other and it helps to balance things out._

_What missions have you completed prior to the Chuunin Exam?_

_I've completed several D rank missions, babysitting and gardening, things like that. I've also completed a C rank mission that involved stealing back a document, and a C rank mission that was a guard detail that went south. I'm not sure how much I should mention freely. Please don't ask me any more._

_What is your relationship to your Kage?_

_The Hokage? He's... aged and wise. He seems like a kind and understanding person. We're very lucky to have him._

_What Sensei have you had? What is your relationship to them?_

_My Sensei at the Konoha Ninja Academy was Umino Iruka. He yelled at people a lot, but he always meant well and he taught us well. My Jounin Sensei is Hatake Kakashi. He's... hard to define. Enigmatic, sarcastically funny. He's been through a lot. He's very experienced in the field._

_How do you fight? How do your teammates fight?_

_I would call myself... a beginning genjutsu illusions specialist... My spell element is fire... Again, I'm not sure how much I should say. My teammates are more close-up action oriented than I am. _

_How do you feel about competing against so many other ninja in the Chuunin Exams? Do you have much experience with rivalry? Have you had any rivalries yourself?_

_Well... there are a lot of people here... they're probably all very talented. I really don't know what I'm supposed to say. The Exam will be hard, but I'll just have to do the best I can. I must admit, I don't have a lot of personal experience with rivalry. But I've known a lot of male rivals who can really respect each other. So I would say rivalry can be a very positive influence. It helps the rivals grow._

_How do you feel about how the Chuunin Exam has gone so far for you?_

_Well, I'm still in it, aren't I? (laughs)_

It was eerie, answering the questions. No one in the Chuunin Exams or beyond would even hear about, let alone bother reading, a little kid's school newspaper report. But it made me a little leery anyway. I tried to be vague about anything to do with fighting. I also had to be careful not to speak badly about anyone, which was a little inhibiting. I hoped Naruto and Sasuke didn't give away too much information. I also hoped they didn't try to skew things.

"Thank you so much," said Konohamaru and his friends at the end, bowing to us. Maybe it was talking to us as more experienced ninja that had reminded them to add the note of respect.

"No problem," I said, smiling with effort.

"See you later, Konohamaru!" Naruto waved as we left.

"You were nice to them, right?" I asked Sasuke.

"Why do you automatically turn to me?" Sasuke asked, exasperated. Naruto started laughing.

It was a nice note of relief before we continued on, a bundle of nerves, toward training ground 44.

* * *

Even from a distance, the training ground was startling. When we came closer, mixing in with the crowd of other hopefuls, our eyes widened.

Mitarashi Anko was standing in front of the fenced-off training ground, next to a tented table of assistant examiners. Behind them was a vast forest, though the term doesn't do justice to what we'd seen. The trees were _huge _\- some of their roots were taller than me! It was dark within the forest, the huge trees close together. There was something intimidating about the very sight of training area 44. A wind whistled softly through the leaves, lifting our hair as it passed, as we stared into the darkness ahead. The fence surrounding the training area was padlocked off, its door chained up; "Entry Forbidden" said a sign hanging next to the chains. The sign next to it said, "Warning: Entry May Lead to Death," which was oddly funny, in a hysterical, not-funny sort of way.

"The second test will take place inside here," said Mitarashi Anko. She was smirking as if amused by our expressions. "Training Ground Forty-Four. Also known as the Forest of Death."

Even as we watched, a centipede larger than a hand crawled across the trunk of the closest tree. A sparrow flittered down onto a branch, and then the largest snake I had ever seen in my life snapped up out of the shadows and swallowed it whole. I jumped a little, and then swallowed. The examiner seemed to notice, and relish it.

"You all will be able to experience firsthand just _why _this place is called the Forest of Death," she said, laying it on thick.

"Yeah, yeah," said Naruto loudly, and I nudged him sharply in the ribs. It was too late, though. Anko had noticed.

"Do you have something to say?" she asked in a low voice, smiling dangerously.

"I just think it's ridiculous, trying to scare us like this!" said Naruto, as usual completely ignoring the tone around him. "_I'm _not scared." He lifted his chin defiantly.

"Oh, really?" And then Anko smiled, and threw a kunai at him. Gasping, I pushed Naruto out of the way one way and leaped back the other way myself. The kunai flew harmlessly in between us. "Aww, too bad, it didn't hit you," Anko pouted, sounding genuinely disappointed. Then she beamed. "Oh, well. You're probably going to die in this next test anyway," she said gleefully. "The loud ones always do!" She giggled and clapped her hands like a little girl.

Great, so our first examiner had been a torture expert and our second examiner was psychotic.

"Do _you _have something to say?" Anko added pointedly, seeing my expression.

"No, ma'am," I replied immediately. "I'm ready to meet my impending death."

"That's the spirit!" said Anko, cheering and lifting her arm. "Now, before the second test starts, the law requires me to pass out these consent forms. Everyone taking this test must sign one, because from here on out, people will die. By signing this form, you are saying you understand the risks and the village cannot be held liable if you are injured or die during the rest of the Chuunin Exam." I thought of my parents and felt a ping of nervousness.

As she passed out the forms, Anko began explaining the second test, shouting loudly so we could all hear.

"_Inside this forest, you will go through an extreme survival match. The forest is a circular area surrounded by 44 locked gate entrances - that's what this fencing is for. There is a stream that runs through the forest - this training area is its own independent ecosystem - and in the exact center of the forest is a tower. The tower is approximately six miles away from any given gate. With me so far?_

"_You will work within training area 44 as a team. Your Genin team will compete against other Genin teams for scrolls. There are two kinds of scrolls, a white one with a seal that says "Heaven" and a black one with a seal that says "Earth." Twenty six teams are gathered here with us today. Half of those teams will get a Heaven scroll and half of those teams will get an Earth scroll. Each Genin team's goal once inside the forest is to get one copy of each kind of scroll. So you have to fight another team - and possibly kill them, anything goes inside this forest - to get the opposite kind of scroll, and then you have to fend off attacks from other teams and keep your original scroll. _

"_You will each begin at a different locked gate entrance and you will all be let into the training ground at once when a timer starts. Making it to the tower with both kinds of scrolls will mean you have passed the second test. All of your teammates must be alive in order for you to receive a passing score. You must reach the tower within the time limit of five days - or exactly 120 hours from when you are released into the forest - in order to receive a passing score._

"_If you're keeping count, that means at least thirteen teams will fail this part of the Exam."_

"What about food?!" Chouji cried in horror, and even Ino was complaining loudly.

"Some of you thought to prepare for that eventuality beforehand." Anko eyed the people who had packs, including me. I felt a little guilty. Maybe I should have thought to warn Ino about this beforehand. But we'd all learned survival and foraging techniques at the Academy. Anko agreed, which was entirely uncomfortable: "Otherwise, just scrounge up some food yourself. There are plenty of plants and animals in the forest. Once you get to the tower, however, food and bedding will be provided for you. A little extra incentive."

"Be careful, though, a lot of things in this forest are poisonous," said the older Konoha Genin with the glasses helpfully from where he was standing beside his teammates.

Chouji looked defeated already and we hadn't even started yet. "Man up, that's why it's called a survival match, I guess," said Ino, though she didn't look too happy herself. No one did. I'd known, though - this was going to take a long time.

"There is no guarantee all thirteen teams will get a scroll. Also, as the time passes, our ability to rest will get shorter and shorter," Neji pointed out.

"This will be tough," said Lee, though he seemed almost to be looking forward to it,

"And we'll be surrounded by enemies, so we won't be able to sleep in peace," said Sasuke quietly.

"Let me reiterate," said Anko. "People will get injured. People will die. There will be those who cannot bear the harshness of this exercise. None of the people I have just mentioned would make worthy Chuunin."

Shikamaru raised his hand. "Can we just give up?" he asked, typically.

"_Quitting_ is not allowed during the Exam," said Anko sternly, so there went that idea. "Oh, and on a side note, you are not allowed to look into the scrolls during the Exam."

"It's like a mission," I said in realization. "It'll be like we're handling someone's private information." I thought of the Jye-Kura mission.

"Correct," said Anko. "It's just testing you on one of the things you're not allowed to do as a Chuunin: _what _you've been assigned to retrieve is not your business. Do not let your curiosity get the better of you. Your job is just to retrieve it.

"And that's it! Sign your consent forms and go with your team to the tent. You'll be taken in one team at a time, and each team will trade three signed consent forms for one scroll. Then you will each head to your assigned gate entrance and wait to be released into the forest.

"Oh. And here's a last piece of advice: Don't die, okay?"

* * *

We all went off separately to sign the consent forms. I curled up under a tree and started to read through mine. The wording was stark and wholly clinical. I felt like a piece of meat being offered up on a table. If I failed to measure up, I would be found wanting and thrown in the garbage.

"Sakura!" I looked up to find Ino jogging over to me. "I actually wanted to talk to you about something."

I had to admit, I was surprised. "Yes?"

Ino looked around and then kneeled down. "Look, I'm not sure how to say it, but... are you sure you can do this?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, frowning.

"I have my mind control techniques. Shikamaru and Chouji have powers too. Hinata, Kiba, Shino, they're all from clans. _Sasuke's _from a clan. God knows what Naruto's still doing here, but look, he doesn't matter! He's not my _friend._" Ino looked at me meaningfully. "Sakura, you don't have any techniques. Are you sure you can handle this? I'm asking as a friend."

"Ino -!"

"No judgments here if you say no," said Ino. "I'll help you find a way to get out. Okay?" She seemed pretty firm on this.

I tried not to be angry. "Ino, Kakashi-sensei's been training me a _lot. _Okay? Trust me, I'll be alright."

Ino was still watching me uncertainly. I looked up, nearly laughing. "_Seriously," _I added.

"... Huh. Maybe your team has been good for you," said Ino at last.

"What do you mean?"

"You just seem... different." Ino smiled. "But it's not a bad different. Matter of fact, I kind of like it!" She jumped up. "Awesome! And now, without further ado -"

She yanked me upward, pushed me sideways, and shoved me behind a bush. "Ino, what the hell -?!" I looked around. Hinata had been hiding behind the bush, listening to our conversation. "You were _listening_?" I asked, not sure why this made me so personally... angry.

Hinata looked away, frowning stubbornly.

"Oh, come on, you two!" Ino got between us where we were looking away from each other. "You know you miss us being a threesome! Hell, _I _know you miss us being a threesome! Hinata was worried about you," Ino told me upfront. "It was _her _who was worried about you dying in this forest. I was just the one 'elected' to come talk to you about it."

I looked up at last. "You were worried about me?" I asked. "Or worried I might not be able to handle it?"

Hinata looked flustered, as if this wasn't going at all the way she planned. "Well - _both_," she admitted at last. "Sakura -" And here, she looked away. "Why does Naruto look at you so much?"

There was a heavy pause. Ino stepped back as though hopeful to let us talk.

"I... I don't know," I admitted after a minute. "Because I talk to him? Hinata... all the things he likes in me, he'd probably also like in _you. _He finds it cute that I'm self conscious and he likes the fact that I have a need to prove myself to someone, and, Hinata, all those things would apply to you too. But you _never talk to him."_

Hinata was still looking away, depressed and annoyed and unsure. "I... You're not just saying that?" she said at last.

"_Yes_. Now what was that about me not being able to handle it?"

Hinata looked up heatedly. "We all know you're the weakest member of this group, physically speaking. And there's nothing _wrong _with that. But Sakura - you have to know your limits! If you died -!" And here, Hinata looked away, upset.

I was still a ways back, with, _We all know you're the weakest member of this group._

Amazed and offended, I replied at last, "I - hope to prove you wrong. And I am definitely taking this test _now_."

"Sakura -!" They looked around to me in alarm.

"No," I said, stepping back from them, my face twisting. "_Definitely." _I grabbed my paper and stalked off to go find my teammates. Then I paused and looked back again. "You know," I said louder to Hinata, "I _wonder_ at the fact that you think about me but don't think about my teammate! Maybe you'd get farther with your precious Naruto _if you actually treated him like a human being occasionally!" _And, making a furious noise in the back of my throat, I stormed off again, straight past Shikamaru and Chouji who were staring in the direction of the bush in fear and confusion as though it held The Ghost of PMS inside it.

On my way through the crowds of Genin, I spotted Gaara with his teammates. There was something harder about his face now, about his eyes, as though mentally he were already in the forest. But he still noticed me and took the time to lock his eyes on me as I passed by.

And I was so thoroughly _done _with people who acted like complete weirdos, that I flipped him off, did a weird little face and dance, and then just kept right on walking.

Gaara stared after me in surprise and something slightly like alarm.

* * *

I was a little flushed when I met up with Naruto and Sasuke. They looked sideways at me in worry and I said flatly, "Girl problems."

Intelligent boys that they were, they said nothing and kept outside a full foot of me at all times.

The teams went in the tent and behind the curtain one by one. Naruto grabbed up our consent forms and traded them in for one scroll, a cream-colored Heaven scroll. The color was as far removed as possible from what we were about to do. Despite my confidence with Hinata and Ino, I was nervous.

"Who should have it?" Naruto asked, and even he was quiet, looking from one teammate to the other.

"Everyone would think I have it," said Sasuke, "if just because of the clan symbol on my back. Naruto's too reckless to have it. Sakura." He turned to me. "_You _take it up."

I took the scroll but I wasn't sure where to put it. In my equipment pouch seemed too obvious, but my pack of things could easily get lost and then be rooted around through. At last, I turned to a false bottom underneath my pack. I opened the flap up, tucked the scroll in underneath, and then sealed it back up. That way, even if someone were looking through my pack, there was still no guarantee they'd find it.

Then, at the appointed time - which came alarmingly fast - we were led to our designated gate by one of the assistant examiners. Once we were there at the gate, staring through the fencing to the forest, I turned to my teammates.

"Once we get in there," I said, "what do we do?"

"What do we do?" Naruto asked in confusion. "Beat the shit out of people. That's what I thought the whole point of this test was." He looked around to Sasuke. "Did I miss something?"

"Yeah, we have to beat people, but -! We're not just going to stumble across someone with a good scroll, are we?" I said.

Sasuke thought for a moment. "We could try hiding and setting up some sort of trap, I suppose," he said at last. "Catch a bunch of people and find the best one. But where would we set the trap up?"

"The one place everyone's going," I responded. "Around the tower. Naruto." I turned to him and smirked. "You get to have fun. Just make the prank life-threatening, right?"

Naruto's dangerous grin came then, the one that filled his whole face.

"So, we're agreed: once we're in there, we make a beeline for the tower?"

And we all agreed that seemed wisest.

* * *

At exactly 3:30, we were released. The examiner unlocked the gate, opened it up, and immediately we shot through it, taking to the trees. If we wanted to get a good place, we had to hurry, after all. Plenty of other examinees might have the same idea. Maybe we could even catch a couple of them!

"We keep chakra in our legs until we make the six miles!" I shouted above the wind as we jumped through the trees. "We stop once each mile to replenish our systems!"

"Stay on high alert, people will be after us!" Sasuke called, and oh how right he was.

Naruto laughed and shouted above the wind, "This is so _cool!" _Then, with his unreal stamina, he exploded past us into the trees.

We were off.


	2. Chapter 2

2.

It was brutal right from the beginning.

Twice, we ran into other people's traps. One was a simple, dumb thing using kunai and ninja wire, easy to jump up and get out of - Sasuke blew a jet stream of fire down the wire right back at them and they ran off into the trees. But in the other trap, the ninja hiding around us used a special wind spell to suck the air right out of our lungs, and we collapsed over, nearly falling off our respective tree branches, confused, our heads swimming. We were only saved by my fast thinking. I used a genjutsu meant to inflict on whoever was hurting me whatever they were hurting me with - in other words, my attackers were suddenly under the illusion they couldn't breathe, and we were freed. The gasping alerted Naruto, who was nearest; he threw a kunai in that general direction and followed it up with a Kage Bunshin. By the time we reached the singular teammate, the other two teammates had sped away, and this one didn't appear to have the scroll.

But even when we paused to rest and replenish (which mostly meant "pee and eat from our packs") we weren't safe. Once when he had gone off behind a tree to pee, Naruto was knocked unconscious and someone snuck in trying to pretend to be him. Sasuke saw little flaws in the transformation spell and got aggressive; the fake Naruto tried to smile and placate Sasuke, which of course alerted us right away that it wasn't the real him. Sasuke and the fake Naruto got into a fight while I snuck around the fight and hit the foreign ninja over the head with a shuriken while he wasn't paying attention to me. (Shuriken - they're not just good for throwing!) Then, after ascertaining that said foreign ninja had a Heaven scroll, we went and found the real Naruto, immediately taking to the trees again.

As we were running forward through the branches, Sasuke said, "We should come up with a password in case that happens again!"

"Not safe!" I shouted back. "People could be listening in on us! Besides, memorizing long words is not Naruto's forte - no offense!"

"None taken!" added Naruto.

"We can just follow each other around," I said, smirking. "I promise my girlish sensibilities won't be offended!"

"I wasn't thinking about those!" said Sasuke. "I just didn't want to have to watch Naruto peeing! _Fuck!"_

Naruto and I laughed.

After that, whenever we paused for a break, we went everywhere with each other. The boys and girls would afford each other the basic courtesy of looking away while the other was peeing.

Once while we were squatting and eating from our packs, some lonely brave asshole tried to attack us from on high and I shot a jet of fire at him with one hand, lazily and irritably, without looking. It was toward the end of the first day by that point, and I was already pretty done. But the ninja didn't dodge in time - he shouted and fell out of the sky like a bird with a broken wing!

"Naruto!" I shouted in excitement, leaping up. "Get him!"

Naruto surrounded that spot in the trees with Kage Bunshin; one put the shrieking man's pants out and the other knocked him over the head with a tree branch. They lowered the limp ninja to the ground quickly and we shamelessly rifled through all his equipment...

And there it was. An Earth scroll.

We looked at each other, awed by our luck for a moment. (It was the last piece of luck we would have for the entire rest of the second test, so it's kind of a nice memory.) "Good job, guys," said Naruto, sitting back and clapping his hands.

"Shh -!" I hissed, looking around. No one had better hear about what we'd come across. Quietly, putting a finger to my lips, I snuck the second scroll underneath the bottom of my pack by the first one.

* * *

We made camp in the forest that night. We would reach the tower by the next day, we were moving so fast. We tucked our packs inside a tree trunk next to our clearing but we kept our equipment holsters with us. We made a fire and set out sleeping bags, but I doubted any of us would be getting any sleep on this particular night. The screams had been echoing from the jungle-like atmosphere around us all day, but now that it was night and we couldn't see beyond our little circle of firelight, they seemed so much louder and more vivid than they had before.

I stretched my sore muscles, sitting back before the fire. It had been a long, exhausting day. I fared better trying to keep up with my teammates now than I would have before the Wave mission, but stamina and chakra strength still weren't my fortes.

Suddenly, Sasuke sat up straighter. "Hey," he said, "do you hear something?"

We tensed, already on high alert, and I reached for the kunai I now kept underneath my pillow always. Now that I focused, I _could _hear it. It was a sort of sliding, slithering sound...

Naruto looked around - and his mouth opened in a silent kind of horror. Looming up there before him, just visible in the flickering firelight, was a snake as large as a tree trunk. It opened its maw at him, wide enough to swallow him whole, fangs protruding.

I stood, shrieking. "Shit -! Shit -!"

And then the fire went out.

It was all black, I was stumbling around in the dark, I heard something move in front of me and I stabbed outward blindly. I heard a giant hiss and a moving of coils, and then a blinding light appeared above. I squinted, putting up a hand. It was Naruto. He had a flashlight strapped to his forehead and he looked ridiculously stupid but _oh my God I could see him and that was awesome right now_.

"Grab my hand!" he shouted, and I realized he was on _top _of the snake's body, and I grabbed his hand and he pulled me up just as the snake lashed out with its maw at the place I would have been. "Run!" he shouted, and then we had jumped off the snake and were running down a forest trail by only the dim, bouncing light of a flashlight, with a human-sized serpent slithering along behind us.

So, think monster horror movie? Yeah. Like that.

"Jump!" I recommended, and we jumped, almost stumbling onto a tree branch. The snake paused, as if surprised by our sudden disappearance.

"I almost didn't get away from its jaws in time," I heard Naruto mutter. "Thank God for all that taijutsu sparring. Hey, Sasuke -"

And then Naruto paused in dread.

"Hey," he said, "where's Sasuke?"

The blood drained from our faces. We looked around - no Sasuke. I gasped, having a horrible thought. "The snake ate hi -!"

Naruto quickly muffled my mouth with a hand, scared shitless. The snake hissed and looked around at my shout, but we hid ourselves farther into the leaves and it just missed us.

Naruto shook his head. _ 'Look down' _he mouthed. I looked down tentatively... There was no body shaped space in the snake's body. We'd be able to see it if the snake had just eaten something. _'We left him in the clearing back there' _Naruto mouthed, pointing.

And suddenly, I got a whole different picture, of Sasuke stumbling around in the dark going, "Where the fuck are those morons?" And then I relaxed, smiling in relief and sheepishness.

'_Oh' _I mouthed. _'Sorry.'_

Naruto seemed amused for a moment. Then he paused in thought, and made some wild hand signals. I started to make the hand signals back that said, "Uh, no, that's not a good idea," but by that point he was already gone. Shit!

I looked around just in time to see Naruto burst out from hiding and start waving his hands around, shouting like the nutcase he was. The snake hissed and went for him. All I could do was try to do what Naruto had asked. I tied an explosive tag to a kunai, prepped the tag, and threw the kunai... And then jumped down to the forest floor and ran like hell in the other direction, covering my hands with my ears.

There was a huge boom as, sure enough, the snake was too distracted by Naruto to notice the tag in time - as Naruto had hoped. The explosive tag ripped right through it. Its corpse fell over with a shaking crash on the forest floor, and I could only hope everyone was too intimidated to come figure out what was going on because _shit _that had been loud.

I went around to go find Naruto - and gasped as I saw his body trapped limply underneath the snake's hide. "Naruto!" I shouted, running over... and then I nearly smiled, clapping a hand over my mouth.

"_I'm okay," _he was muttering into the forest floor. "_Get. This thing. Off of me."_

I thought quickly for a moment and then decided to free his hands first. I yanked them out so they were free, and then Naruto made the hand seal for the Kage Bunshin. I constructed a kind of lever with some spare equipment as the Naruto copies pushed, and eventually we got the snake's gruesome body out from over Naruto.

He stood, a little worse for wear, but basically alright. His dirt-smeared flashlight bobbed for a moment with his head as he stood, swallowing.

"Well," he said sarcastically, "that was fun. Aren't you glad we signed up for this?" He looked around irritably and then waved a general hand in the other direction. "Might as well go find Sasuke. And he'll probably call me an idiot again. Oh goodie."

"Hey, you just defeated a giant serpent," I said. "We _both _did. I think that deserves some sort of reward. Kakashi-sensei should buy us ice cream or something."

"Oh yeah! First thing when we get back!" said Naruto, raising his hands in the air, and I laughed in spite of myself. So we made it back to camp... only to find it empty. Sleeping bags untouched. Burned out fire. All darkness.

That was when it started to feel like a horror movie again.

"What the -?" Naruto began. And then we heard it before we saw it. Our eyes were starting to adjust to the darkness, but our ears were sharper, and we could just make out... A whistling sound, accompanied by a sort of chopping. That was when they came into view. Sasuke was being chased by a tall, dark haired, androgynous looking character. The... man?... was letting out wind spells that chopped at the forest around it, trying to cut through Sasuke, and Sasuke was running toward us in a blind panic, just making it ahead of the wind ninjutsu spells. He was bleeding heavily from one of his legs, so even in his running he was limping. "Run!" he called to us, seeing us, and for the second time in my life I saw Sasuke terrified. "Run, get out of here!"

"_Sharingan," _the man was hissing, "why don't you show me your _Sharingan!?"_

"He doesn't have it!" I shouted out instinctively, almost angrily, and the man suddenly stopped in his tracks. Sasuke stopped too, tripping and falling. I ran in between Sasuke and the man, and the man looked almost disappointed. He was glaring at me as if I had personally offended him in some way.

"He doesn't have it?" he asked, as if he genuinely hadn't expected this. No one seemed to.

"No," I said, breathing hard. "So if that's what you're here for, you can just clear out right now!"

The man paused, his lips thin, and then his hand lashed out so fast I didn't even see it until he'd already back handed me across the cheek. And as I was falling, I saw Sasuke's Sharingan activate - the repeated attacks from the man had finally broken through whatever barrier he'd had - and I knew I had to hide Sasuke's Sharingan, somehow - and then as I fell on top of Sasuke I looked up, blindly, into the man's eyes.

And I saw why Sasuke had been running.

The killing intent was so overwhelming it felt for a moment as though I were physically, viscerally experiencing being tortured, being stabbed, being _killed, _and a voice deep inside me told me to run, run, run as far as I could -! But I couldn't run. I couldn't move. I couldn't do _anything._

But there was one thing I could do. I reached my shaking hands up... and whispered a word as I activated a Genjutsu.

And then I was free. I saw the man's eyes widen as _he _experienced what I just had, the sudden feeling of being stabbed with someone's eyes, being tortured, being _killed -! _And then Sasuke had turned away, as if in realization, as if hiding his eyes, and I could move again and get off of him, we were safe. I had blocked the man's ability to see Sasuke's eyes.

Except we _weren't _safe. Because the man broke out of his trance with careless ease, laughing and snarling at the same time, and then he moved toward me so fast I could barely even track him. I managed to back up fast and put up a few pathetic taijutsu blocks before he grabbed me, snatching me up out of the air, by the throat. I hung there with my feet dangling above the ground. I had never seen anyone as fast and good at taijutsu as this man, except maybe Kakashi-sensei.

"... _This little girl!" _said the man then, and he was laughing, but his eyes were very angry. He turned to Sasuke where he was lying. Sasuke's eyes were black again. The man shook me where he had caught me. "_This little girl _is a better ninja than you! I guess all the good genes went to your _brother!"_

Sasuke suddenly stood, yelling out, and rushed at the man, who flicked a kunai almost lazily and caught Sasuke in the other leg. Sasuke collapsed.

But while the man had been looking away, I'd made a hand seal and had myself disappear. I had just enough time to savor the man's surprise when he turned back to find himself holding an invisible girl, as I ran through a set of hand seals. And from the hands of that invisible girl came a fire dragon.

The majesty of it was what had first caught at me. An enormous dragon crafted of fire formed among the trees and rushed down at us. And as the man's eyes were caught up in the blaze, I broke out of his grip just like Sasuke had taught me and jumped off to the side...

Only to find myself covered in water droplets. I looked up, surprised.

The man had defeated my fire dragon with an equally large water dragon - he was skilled at spells too - and he was coming at me again. I went to run, but he made a hand seal and had earth close up around my thin frame, sealing me in, like a horizontal version of the same earth spell Kakashi had used to trap Sasuke during our final Genin test. Then the man kneeled down beside me and smiled, his eyes dangerous.

"_You _don't happen to possess a bloodline ability, do you?" he asked.

I shook my head no in a kind of horrified trance, because I knew even then that was the right answer. He shrugged and said, "Pity. You remind me a little of Anko. Oh well. I guess I'll just have to kill the three of you." And then he raised his knife up over me to kill me.

A snarl, preternatural and entirely terrifying, echoed throughout the clearing. The man was suddenly pushed away from me by one Uzumaki Naruto. I was about to shout out to Naruto...

My mouth hung there in horror, silent and terrified for a whole other reason.

Naruto... wasn't Naruto. When he looked up, his eyes were blood-red. His teeth were sharp and vicious. His face was animalistic, fox like, twisted into a snarl. And then a burning, terrifying kind of fire chakra burst out from around him. It twisted, forming, forming... into the vision of a fox.

"_Don't hurt her," _he growled, _"don't hurt her - or I'll __**kill **__you!"_

This, I realized, was the thing Naruto had told me about, the thing that had come out to defeat Haku after Sasuke's self sacrifice, the thing Kakashi had tried to warn me against.

* * *

"_It's your birthday next month, Naruto?" I asked. We were sitting on the bridge one afternoon just before the Chuunin Exam, waiting for Kakashi-sensei to show up. "I didn't know you were born in October."_

"_October 10th," Naruto confirmed._

"_Same day as the fox demon attack," said Sasuke. "How cheerful. That's kind of morbid."_

"_Oh, is it?" said Naruto, and he laughed self consciously._

* * *

Naruto... he was the fox demon that had attacked Konoha twelve years ago. But... _how?_

The androgynous dark-haired man had backed up, slowly, more cautiously. "So you're on this team too," he said, and then he smiled a little. "Well, that's news to me. How... _interesting."_

And then all the fire chakra was coming at him at once, Naruto running right behind it, snarling, and it was entirely terrifying, and -

The man smiled self deprecatingly. "Ah, well," he said, shrugging philosophically. "Another time, perhaps." And he disappeared.

Naruto, abruptly, was pouncing on empty air.

He paused, snarling, turning around and around... The man was gone. Then Naruto's eyes fell on me. They were not human. It is impossible to over-describe how utterly not human they were.

I suddenly was hit again by the feeling that I had to get away, me and Sasuke, we had to get away now, and -

I was struggling, trying to get myself out of my bonds, and Sasuke was just sitting there with kunai sticking out of his legs gaping, and then Naruto was coming over to me. This inhuman boy, he kneeled down beside me, and it was impossible to tell what he thought when he looked at me.

I began babbling. "Naruto. Naruto, it's me. Naruto, please. Don't hurt us. It's us, Naruto. Me and Sasuke. It's us and -"

Naruto reached out a clawed hand, and touched me. The claws melted away to reveal mere human fingernails.

"I know," he said softly, and when I looked up again, there were a pair of tired blue eyes holding mine.

I was so relieved to see the switch-back that I reached up and hugged him. Naruto - the normal, human Naruto now - paused in shock for a moment, and then he hugged me back tightly.

"Who _was _that asshole?" Naruto asked, sitting away from me at last.

I had a new task when we got to the tower, and determination filled me. I sat back. "That," I said, "is what we need to ask Mitarashi Anko."

* * *

We helped Sasuke up and onto his feet, taking up our packs and leaving the remains of our camp where they were. We found a safer place, a hiding place, a space underneath a cliff of sheer rock, next to the river. There was a little space there where we could all sit if we ducked our heads; people could walk along above us by the river and never know there was someone underneath.

I bandaged up Sasuke's legs and then crawled to the outside, standing. "I'm going to go get some herbs to make a salve," I said. The boys nodded, still looking downward. They both seemed unusually quiet.

So I went outside and downstream, looking for the right sorts of herbs at the roots of trees. Suddenly, as I bent down to get something, I felt all my muscles seize up painfully. I was frozen, tipping, tipping, and then I fell over, my face eating dirt.

I couldn't move. I had been put under a paralysis spell.

I felt three pairs of Genin feet jump down and crowd around me. "Good idea," one of the boys congratulated the others. "Trap their hands and feet and what can they do?"

What _could _I do? I relied on my hands for all my important techniques, all my spells. And without legs, I couldn't run or kick.

I was turned over onto my back and three smirking faces met me in the moonlight. One lifted his foot up and stomped onto my nose. I felt blood come out and a spurt of pain; I had trouble breathing, the penny-tasting blood dripping down my throat, but I couldn't cough. There were chuckles. Then I felt my body being patted down inappropriately, butt and boobs and thighs touched without care, and then they were rifling through my equipment pouch.

Of course, they found nothing. My pack, with its two scrolls, was still back with Sasuke and Naruto.

The boys stood up, muttering to each other. "Nothing. What should we do with her?"

"We could knock her out."

"We could kill her."

"Should we...?"

And just as I thought I was about to meet my end, a rock came arcing out from the surrounding underbrush, with aim worthy of Sasuke, and it hit one boy's temple at just the right angle that his head flew back and he fell over, unconscious. I realized that was the boy who had done the paralysis spell.

His two teammates looked around wildly as Naruto Kage Bunshin came out, engaging each of them; while they were fighting the Bunshin, the real Naruto came out and jumped up, bending his body in an odd arc sideways to hit them both at the same time. A fireball came out from the bush and flew over their heads, and they ducked back, busy with the fire and the copies, so Naruto had the opportunity to knock them out. He just missed the fire, in a perfect synchronization.

If I were able to relax into relief, I would have. Naruto and Sasuke had started wondering what was taking so long and had come for me.

Naruto quickly came over and kneeled down beside me. His face darkened when he saw me, the blood all over my face. "Hey, Sasuke," I heard him say. "She's frozen. What do we do?"

"Bring me over," came the order from Sasuke's voice. Naruto walked off and then brought a limping Sasuke over. In a well trained technique, Sasuke touched my arm with a sharp burst of chakra, and I was released. The paralysis was over.

"You could release a flood of chakra yourself through your body," Sasuke added informatively. "But it's much harder on your own without a channel and release point."

I sat up, and they each put a steadying hand on my arm, being almost careful with me. Then we took care of each other: I put the salve on Sasuke's wounds to help them heal, bandaging them up tightly, and Sasuke and Naruto helped me wash all the blood off my face. The bone wasn't broken, but damn if it didn't hurt a lot.

We sat there underneath our cliff afterward, sitting back, quiet. We felt closer again, a cohesive team unit once more, but no one knew what to say. Oddly, I wished Kakashi-sensei were here, though he probably wouldn't have said anything. Sensei would know what to do.

"Naruto," I said at last, "are you the fox demon? The one who attacked Konoha twelve years ago?" There was no easy way to say it. A stark, heavy silence followed. Sasuke was looking piercingly at Naruto, as if checking for evidence of falsehood.

Naruto looked ahead, tense. His expression was almost frightened. "No," he whispered after a moment. "I... you guys can't tell _anyone." _He looked around at us seriously, and I could see then that he _was _frightened. "Promise?" he said.

And we both nodded.

Naruto swallowed. "... On the day I was born," he began softly, "the nine-tailed fox demon attacked Konoha. The Fourth Hokage defeated the demon, by sealing it inside a newborn baby. He sealed it into me. I was born and orphaned on the same day. I guess I figured..." Naruto looked away. "I guess I always just kind of figured he thought nobody would miss me if I died," he muttered.

I didn't know what to say. And if I didn't know what to say, Sasuke definitely didn't.

"So why don't you use the demon to fight all the time, Naruto?" I asked at last.

"Because - because I don't want to become a monster!" said Naruto fervently. He looked around at us. "I want to become a strong ninja in my own right! And also... I didn't know if I could control it before now. I mean - after I talked to Sakura about... my secret... during the Wave mission... I got so angry when I thought Sasuke had died... and that's when it came out the first time. I thought, this must be what I was talking to Sakura-chan about. This must be the demon. So I attacked the asshole who had killed Sasuke - but then the chakra, it just... went away when I recognized Haku. But I thought that might just have been a fluke. What if next time, I got so angry I couldn't stop, and I killed someone? I couldn't risk that. It was only when I saw Sakura-chan and the chakra went away again that I -" He looked away again, as if embarrassed. "Well," he said. "You know."

Sasuke's hands had curled into tight fists. "Damnit," he said after a moment, gritting his teeth.

"What?" I said quickly, turning to him in concern. "Is it your legs?"

This just seemed to make Sasuke more furious. After a moment, he said, "... _When did you two become so much stronger than me_?!"

We stared at him.

"Why do you have this huge need to be stronger?" I asked, a question I'd been wondering for a while now. "Why are you so perfectionistic?"

"You don't understand! I have to -" Sasuke gestured wildly, unusually emotional. "I have to kill him! And I've just spent all this time slacking off, apparently, and you two have been getting so much stronger, and - I let myself relax. I _can't_ do that," he muttered to himself, looking away darkly.

"You have to kill who, Sasuke?" I asked. "Who is this man you have to kill? Is it like that man said? Is it your brother?" This was added on an inspiration.

Sasuke looked at me with narrowed, dangerous eyes.

But then Naruto said in confusion, "Of course it's his brother." We both turned to stare at him. Naruto looked away uncomfortably. "When Sasuke had been attacked by Haku, and he thought he was dying - I don't think he was really even conscious. He just started muttering about wanting to kill his brother. I never told anyone because I... didn't think it was anyone else's business," Naruto said quietly.

Sasuke took a deep breath, nostrils flaring. "Yes," he said after a moment. "That's right. My brother killed my parents. He murdered our clan." Our eyes widened. "And then he ran off. He's a missing nin. And he was a Jounin _then. _He's so much infinitely stronger than me - You guys don't understand. I can't afford to remain _weak." _Sasuke's chest was heaving. "And it seems that's all I am to all these powerful people!" he shouted at last. "Is _weak!"_

I was sad. "Sasuke..." I wanted to tell him that strength wasn't the only thing that was important, but I didn't know how.

"I envy you," he said, looking between us. "_Your _demon. _Your_ training with Kakashi. I wish I'd had something like that." He looked away sullenly.

"That's ridiculous," I said firmly, and suddenly I was almost angry. "Sasuke, you have more natural talent than either of us. And _you _can train with Kakashi. He can train you with your Sharingan, the next time you see him! It all just comes down to hard work! Lee works hard! Gaara's been pushed by his father! That man, whoever he was - he's just been training really hard for years! And as for Naruto's demon..."

I turned to Naruto, who laughed humorlessly. "Trust me, you don't want this asshole," he said grimly, and he was so far removed from the usual Naruto that I went silent. "He freaks out and tries to take over whenever I get too upset. Like when I see you guys get hurt - he comes out and tries to kill people. I can hear him there in the back of my mind. Talking about death, and blood, and destruction. And because of him, all the adults who know hate me. That's why Kakashi-sensei wouldn't let me be with Sakura-chan. It's all because of the damn demon.

"Look, Sasuke," said Naruto heatedly, because Sasuke at last seemed surprised, at last unsure. "To be honest? I don't know what it's like to lose someone, but I know what it's like to wish you had someone worth losing. I'd rather be you - _any _day of the week. You're capable of amazing things. You come from this incredible family. And everyone looks up to you. And me, I'm just - hated. And alone." Here, Naruto looked away, the last words coming out quieter.

"... I'm sorry," Sasuke said at last, and he looked away too. "It's just - you were right there. People I care about, again. And _again, _I could do nothing. _Again, _I wasn't even worth killing!" His face twisted in anguish. "I just -"

"Wanted to be the one protecting people for once. Yeah," said Naruto, smiling sadly. "I know that feeling."

They were staring at each other as if in a whole new way. I looked between them.

"You guys are becoming stronger, you know," I said at last, and they both turned to look at me in surprise. "In the ways that are important, you already are. But... Naruto, you now know you can control your demon. Sasuke, I saw you activate your Sharingan; I hid it from that man who wanted to see it. My genjutsu probably couldn't compete with Sasuke's Sharingan. I _know _I couldn't compete with the incredible fire chakra of Naruto's demon.

"You're both going to become stronger than me." I smiled bittersweetly in realization. "I know you are."


	3. Chapter 3

3.

We each stood guard outside the entrance to our hideout that night, taking turns so each team member could snatch a precious few hours of sleep in their sleeping bag on the ground. Everything seemed so much uglier the next morning, as if the night had left some sort of indelible imprint.

We ate from our packs, scarfing down food, dirty and grimy right down to the layer on our teeth. We were just packing up to leave when a squirrel wandered out toward our hideout, crawling close to the cliff. After Zabuza and the rabbit, small animals in dangerous situations had left us leery. I exchanged looks with my teammates and nodded.

"Go!" I threw a remnant of a good package at it. "Go on, get out of here!"

It was probably just paranoia, but I still felt better when the squirrel scampered away. Then there was a sudden boom and my eyes widened.

The squirrel had just exploded, an explosive tag strapped to its back.

We were flown back just as the three Oto nin from before the first test jumped from the cliff above us and out in front of our hideout! Their feet hit the ground - and then the trap we'd set up around our hiding place activated.

It was Naruto's idea mainly - he got to exercise his creativity after all - though Sasuke and I helped. We had taken up some empty scrolls and written seals onto them, prepping them to release whatever was inside them whenever a chakra energy other than our own came over them. (This was what I was good for - Iruka had taught us a few basic seals at the Academy and one of them involved tying seals to specific chakra signatures. I remembered everything and it just took a few minutes of fiddling between me and Sasuke to figure out how to do what we were trying to do.) Then we had put prepped explosive tags inside the seals, set to explode whenever they were released from their seal. We then buried those scrolls in the ground in front of our hideout - in the muddy embankment so no one would be able to tell the difference from the surface.

Simple, but effective.

The Oto nin jumped at the last moment to avoid the blasts, their eyes widening, but even though they avoided the blaze they were blasted back onto their feet and thrown to the ground. I shielded my eyes from the light for a moment and when I could see again, all three Oto nin were on their backs. With a sickening crack, the lead Oto nin's metal arm had even formed a giant fault line across its side.

Sasuke threw a barrage of kunai at the Oto nin, most of which they blocked but a couple of which hit non vital areas, as we charged at the Oto team. I took the girl, Sasuke took the one with the metal arm, and Naruto took the other boy. We found out their names as they shouted to each other when the fight began: the girl was "Kin", the boy with the metal arm was "Dosu", and the other boy was "Zaku."

Kin used senbon, as Haku had, an interesting fighting choice that Haku had used mainly for non lethal purposes. At first, this Kin girl seemed the same. She threw senbon at me, but they easily missed their target and were incredibly simple to dodge. They flew behind me and lodged themselves in the rock. For some reason, there were bells on the senbon. I heard the bells clanging as the senbon passed my ears, and then all of a sudden there were three Kins, a mirage of attackers playing across my vision as she ran in to attack me. I couldn't tell which one was the real Kin.

A Bunshin technique? No, these Kins didn't seem solid; it was like I had taken a hallucinogen.

It must be a genjutsu, then, a sound based one. Well, two could play at that game.

I weaved a genjutsu around _her _so she was experiencing what I had; Kin paused in shock for a moment and by that time I had already broken out of her illusion. I dodged to the side and went around to attack _her_, but now she couldn't see which one was the real _me. _I went to stab her in the arm with a kunai and my stab went straight through the mirage like it was air.

Shit! More genjutsu! I broke out of her illusion again, only to find her jumping on top of me from behind, pouncing on me and shoving me to the ground, her knees digging into my back. I made a genjutsu form itself around her so that all of a sudden she lost all tactile sensation, and then while she was disoriented I turned around, shoving her off of me and getting to my feet a safe distance away.

We were broken from our own fight by a shout from a fight beside us. We both looked around.

Sasuke had fallen to Dosu's arm wave like the bespectacled Konoha nin had. It appeared to effect hearing. He had thrown up and his ears were bleeding. As he was kneeling on the ground, clutching his stomach, Dosu came forward bragging...

And then Sasuke, with incredible effort, waited until Dosu was close enough, then suddenly swept out at Dosu's legs and stood up, swaying dizzily, behind him. He grabbed Dosu's arm, cracked it against the ground at the fault line, and broke it. Blood went everywhere, pieces of metal went everywhere, and Dosu began screaming. The metal had been surgically attached to his arm!

Kin's eyes had widened as they stared at Dosu and I saw the perfect opportunity. I weaved a genjutsu. Kin suddenly felt a horrible pain in her abdomen. She looked down... and her eyes widened. A piece of sharp metal had flown out and lodged itself in her sternum. Kin was bleeding, she couldn't breathe. Kin was dying.

Well, in her own head, anyway.

Satisfied with my illusion, I shot a burst of chakra into my legs, sped behind Kin, and knocked her out over the back of the head. When I looked up at Sasuke's fight again, Sasuke still looked ill, but the wounded Dosu was also unconscious. I looked closer at Sasuke and saw, sure enough, a pair of Sharingan eyes.

"I saw," said Sasuke, smirking grimly. "I saw how Dosu was doing it, moving the chakra through his arm, and I decided to trick him."

He showed a positively alarming lack of care toward injuring other people, but that was Sasuke all over.

Meanwhile, Naruto was not getting anywhere with Zaku. Zaku wasn't getting anywhere with Naruto either, to be fair. Zaku kept throwing out bursts of air from his hands, and Naruto kept dodging. Naruto kept making Kage Bunshin, and Zaku kept blasting them away, keeping them at bay.

"He's pretty good at multitasking," I muttered to Sasuke. "Should we test that?"

So we jumped up and around Naruto and Zaku's fight. Sasuke let out a burst of fire from his mouth at Zaku, and while Zaku was busy blowing that away, Naruto attacked him with Kage Bunshin from his other side. Zaku was trying to block two things from two different directions at once, aiming at one each with each hand, but then I weaved a genjutsu to make both attacks disappear from his field of vision.

Realizing at the last second what was going on, Zaku abandoned all dignity by curling into a ball and letting the attacks pass over his head. "Alright! Alright!" he cried out, lifting his hands - maybe his unconscious teammates and the possibility of being fried to a crisp had sobered him.

We paused and Zaku stood. "Fine," he said. "You can have our Earth scroll. Leave us in peace."

"We don't want an Earth scroll," said Naruto. "What else ya got?"

Zaku seemed caught off guard. "What? Well - well -"

"Oh, stop torturing him, Naruto," I said, almost scolding. "Just let them leave."

Naruto sat back, laughing slightly. "Alright," he agreed. Sasuke relaxed, smirking.

Zaku went and got his teammates, picking them up slowly. My team went down to the forest floor to regroup... Then, at the last second, Zaku turned around and tried to blast us with a giant blast of air all at once! We dodged, each in different directions, and then went after him.

"Damn," Zaku cursed, and ran away into the underbrush. That was the last we saw of the Sound nin in the second test.

* * *

Naruto, Sasuke, and I packed up, made sure we still had our two scrolls within the relative safety of our cave space, and then ventured forth back out into the forest on the second day. We were slower than last time, but maintained a pretty steady pace. We had to make the tower. We knew that the closer we got to the tower, the more likely we were to encounter a trap. We were right.

As we got closer to the center of the jungle, the trees seemed to get closer together and everything began to appear darker. We started encountering more dangerous animals - gigantic bugs, big wild cats, and other things we gave a wide berth to - and also clumps of poison ivy that someone would point out and we'd have to work around. We also began encountering dead people in the remnants of traps, usually placed high up in the trees. That was how we knew we were getting close to the tower. The smell of blood pervaded everything and we were all covered with sweat and dirt. Sasuke's legs were still wounded and my nose had bruised.

We passed over several traps, simple trip wire ones and once a creative one that used the vines of surrounding trees to craft a web. We almost fell to that one, but Sasuke aimed a kunai at exactly the right angle to cut through all the vines holding us up and then we crashed quite painfully to the forest floor, but we were freed.

Usually, at that point, the people who had weaved the trap would come out and try to fight us. Naruto would spam with Kage Bunshin and only if the Kage Bunshin fell would we go in and fight ourselves. "Fuck this test!" I once shouted, swinging my pack around and hitting my assailant in the face, and then that became our mantra as we became more and more exhausted and encountered more and more traps. _"Fuck this test!" _my teammates would shout, mostly jokingly, as they went in to fight yet another prospective Chuunin.

Only one set of Genin didn't fight us, a group who tried to exhaust us with a genjutsu that made it seem as though we were heading toward the tower when we were really just walking around in circles. After all my training with Kakashi, I sensed and broke through the genjutsu quickly. Naruto went after the two Genin in the trees and they ran off, apparently not confident in their close combat abilities, or perhaps not confident in their ability to beat a fellow illusions specialist.

Somehow, we made it through every group. By the time we got to the tower, we were stumbling and staggering - even Naruto was tired - and there was a trail of unconscious bodies left on the forest floor behind us.

* * *

When we saw the door to the tower in sight, it was like a miracle, like the sun shining through on a day as dark as this one. It was in the late afternoon, toward the end of the second day. "Watch," I muttered as we went up the concrete steps, "we're never going to make it. We're going to be caught in another illusion where we're forever _almost _to the door."

"Don't jinx it," said Sasuke sourly back.

"Our savior!" Naruto shouted, collapsing against the door.

In actuality, our door was one in a series of doors along the front of the tower's first floor. We grabbed the door handle and went in to the closest one, going from one kind of gloom to another, the gloom of indoors. We were suddenly in a great, electrically lit, echoing stone chamber. Across the chamber was a sign:

_If you do not possess Heaven, prepare and gain knowledge. If you do not possess Earth, run through the fields and gain strength. With both Heaven and Earth, danger turns into safety. This is the secret of _. It will lead you on your way._

"Part of the sign's missing," Naruto noted.

"Well, it has to be on purpose," I said, squinting up at the sign. At last, I sighed, irritably. "It would be a lot more interesting trying to figure this out if I wasn't so damn tired. But I think it's telling us to open both the Heaven and Earth scrolls."

So we opened both scrolls, white and dark, spreading them out across the floor in front of us. Immediately, I said, "That's the symbol that appears on Kakashi-sensei's scroll whenever he summons his dogs. We saw it on the Jye-Kura mission." We backed away as smoke began coming from the seal, the seal bulging and rippling oddly...

And then from out of the scroll appeared, of all people, Iruka-sensei. We paused in surprise. Iruka-sensei had been summoned to us.

"Iruka," Sasuke said at last, as if it was the last person he'd expected to see here.

"Iruka-sensei! What are you doing here?" said Naruto, his eyes round with wonder, and I noticed that again Iruka was mostly looking at Naruto.

"Konoha Chuunin are summoned to welcome the examinees at the end of their successful completion of the second test," said Iruka.

"Are the scroll seals rigged to recognize chakra signatures?" I asked.

Iruka seemed surprised. "Why would you ask that?" he asked, with a funny sort of smile.

"Because if you could have, you'd definitely have chosen to be summoned to Naruto," I said simply.

Iruka smiled sheepishly, uncomfortable. "Well," he said, "that was one factor. But I also wanted to appear to at least one of the rookie teams. You all were my students. I wanted to see how you fared. You all look pretty beaten up," he said, looking us over. "But it's only the second day, so that's positive. One of the rookie teams has already preceded you here. It'll be interesting to see if the other team makes it as well."

"Which other team is here?" I asked quickly.

"Hinata, Kiba, and Shino," said Iruka. "They arrived a few hours ago, just before you did. Anyway, I'm here to pass along a message: Congratulations on making it through the second test. I'd like to treat you to ramen at Ichiraku's, but..." This, too, was for Naruto, who immediately cheered and ran forward -

"There's a but," I said quickly. "You mean it's not over yet?"

Naruto paused, his smile fading a little.

"Well..." Iruka winced. "It is, for now. You all get to rest up here in the tower until three o'clock on the fifth day. After that, everyone will be summoned and what will happen afterward will be announced. It's all up in the air so far."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.

"Usually, we would just proceed to the third test. But depending on how many teams have passed, we may have to do another pretest, to thin out the numbers. That can sometimes happen. You've all done very well," Iruka added, warmer, "even to make it this far. Be careful with yourselves from here on out."

He was looking at Naruto again, who scowled. "I'm going to try my best," said Naruto in response. "I'm a _ninja, _after all. I can't be acting like a student." His tone was fierce, as if desperate to prove he didn't need coddling.

"Speaking of which, what would you have done if we'd opened the scrolls before getting to the tower?" Sasuke added curiously then.

"Well, we would have had to knock you out in a way that kept you unconscious till the end of the Exam. So how brutal the attack would have been would have depended on how early the scroll was opened," said Iruka smoothly. I shuddered a little. I didn't really want to know what happened to the people who opened the scroll on the first day.

"So, what does that text on the wall mean?" I asked. "Why is a piece missing?"

"That's actually part of my message," said Iruka. "Hokage-sama wrote this. We are required to explain it to you. Hokage-sama said it's the most important thing to remember as a Chuunin. What do _you _think it means?" He turned to me.

"Well, Heaven seems to be a metaphor to the mind..." I said slowly. "And Earth to the body... He's saying we need both to make a dangerous mission safer?"

"That's exactly it," said Iruka. "One needs the mind and body both to work in tandem with each other in order for missions to be successfully completed. Both need to be prepared rigorously. That's what it means."

"And this test tested both," I said curiously. "Without our bodies, we'd never have completed it, sure; but it also required observation and strategy to reach the tower, and then once we got there we had to figure out what the riddle meant."

"It was meant to mirror one of your most difficult missions as a Chuunin, and to see if you could successfully complete it," said Iruka. "As a squad commander, being able to get through and get your team through situations like this is vital."

"The mission objective was to retrieve the scrolls and get them to the tower," said Sasuke, and he turned to us. "Like the mission objective was the bells with Kakashi." Naruto and I nodded.

"Correct," said Iruka. "Good job, all of you."

"So what about the missing character?" Naruto was the one to ask.

"It's the 'person' character that symbolizes a Chuunin," said Iruka, smiling. "You will find that missing character on the insides of these scrolls."

"I have another question, Iruka-sensei," I said, raising my hand like we were at the Academy again.

Iruka seemed amused, as if he'd expected it. "Of course, Sakura."

"So far, all these tests have tested us as a team," I said. "And so far, if a team had one really good member, all three could have passed. But will we ever get tested on our individual abilities as Chuunin?"

"Ah," said Iruka, smirking. "_That _comes next." He nodded to me significantly. "Very good."

I sat back, satisfied. And then I had a sudden thought. "Oh! Can we see the second examiner?" I asked, remembering. "Can we see Anko-san?" Sasuke and Naruto stood up straighter, growing more serious.

"Well, she's in a meeting right now with Hokage-sama about something important..." said Iruka slowly. "And she and him and some ANBU will probably be involved in extensive meetings over the next few days..."

"Great," said Naruto in a deadly voice. "Because Grandpa Hokage should know too."

Iruka's eyes widened in alarm. "What do you mean?"

"My secret's been breached," said Naruto.

"Someone's after my Sharingan," said Sasuke.

"We were attacked by someone who didn't seem to be an official part of the Chuunin Exam," I said.

Iruka looked flabbergasted. "... What the _hell _happened while you were in that forest?"

* * *

Iruka walked us up the stairs and to a door at the end of the second floor. Masked ANBU were standing guard outside of it, and I felt a nervous kind of trepidation.

"It's important," Iruka muttered, and after a chakra scan and a pat-down we were let through to the meeting within.

The Hokage looked up from his place in the meeting room and Mitarashi Anko quickly tucked her coat up defensively around herself. "What is this?" said the Hokage. "Iruka, what is going on?"

"Sir, I think what they have to say could be relevant to what you're talking about," said Iruka firmly.

So we stood there, in front of those three more powerful ninja, and we told our story. There was a long silence when we were finished. Anko and the Hokage looked at each other meaningfully.

"Who was he?" I asked at last. "With all due respect, what the hell's going on?"

"That's what I'd like to know!" Naruto added in exasperation.

"... He was after _me," _Sasuke reminded them, eyes narrowed, when they didn't seem about to speak.

The Hokage sighed. "Let's just say it was a good thing he seemed uninterested in you," he said. "We have reason to believe the S-class Konoha missing nin Orochimaru may be trying to infiltrate this Exam."

I remembered him from the Academy readings, and my eyes widened. "One of the three famous Sannin, one of the three Sages, your former student?" I asked. "The one who experimented on innocent people in the name of furthering chakra research and was exiled?"

"He has a fascination with all things chakra related, and especially with bloodlines," said Anko. "He likes to _collect _people with interesting abilities and experiment on them, using them for his own power and ends." Her face twisted in disgust. "He wanted you for your body," she told Sasuke. "But when he wrote you off as untalented, you were taken off his list of collectables."

"Why is he here?" I asked.

"We're not entirely sure, other than to look for people with interesting abilities. He hinted that he has people inside the Exam, people who work for him. Honestly, I think he's just trying to sew chaos," said Anko. "He said he didn't have enough people to overthrow the Hokage."

"You _talked _to him?" I asked.

"We found some Genin whose faces he'd ripped off and used as a disguise," said Anko. "That's how he got into the second test in the first place. I had to go in after him. He got away; it..." She looked away, clutching a hand which I suddenly saw was injured. She looked angry. "It did not go well," she said darkly.

"Why did _you _have to go after him?" Sasuke asked then, and Anko's anger simmered to a particularly dangerous level. She looked at Sasuke not unlike Sasuke had looked at me when I'd asked him about his brother.

"I used to be his student, before he left the village," she admitted after a while. "He experimented on me and left me for dead." She took a deep breath. "I was in love with him," she said, lifting her chin matter of factly. "And I might as well say it, because that's the only way I'm ever going to be able to get rid of the feeling he left me with."

The Hokage looked down and I saw it there, one of his biggest qualities, the guilt. Did guilt come to all those lucky enough to age as ninja?

I asked a different question out loud. "Does he have an affinity with snakes?" I asked.

"Yes, he does," said the Hokage, as he and Anko looked at me in surprise. "Why?"

"Naruto and I were attacked by a giant snake. At first, we thought it was just a part of the Forest of Death, but the separation of us from Sasuke seemed so deliberate and convenient... I was just wondering," I said.

"It could have been a summons," said the Hokage, sitting back thoughtfully. "Orochimaru always had an affinity to snakes. He possesses a snake summons."

"Now that you all understand," said Anko, standing up sternly, "as an examiner and as your superior, I'm asking you not to tell _anyone _about this possible infiltration. We're going to try to keep this Exam going on for as long as possible."

"Why?" Sasuke asked.

"Because it will give us an opportunity to see what Orochimaru is up to," said the Hokage brusquely. "And there's one other matter we need to go over... You two now know about Naruto's secret." He looked at us. "Do you want to be taken off his team?"

So that was why Naruto had been so quiet. He looked down, his eyes closing as if in preparation for an inevitable 'yes', his fists clenched.

"No!" I said quickly, and to my surprise Sasuke said it just as quickly as I had. We looked at each other, and then back at the Hokage. "Naruto... The last thing I feel is unsafe around Naruto," I said, and Naruto looked up at us, brightening.

The Hokage smiled then, the wrinkles in his face lifting. "Well," he said softly, "perhaps I've done something right."

* * *

We left Anko and the Hokage to their meetings, and Iruka walked us to the rooms we'd be staying in for the next few days; I had one room and Sasuke and Naruto had the other, with an attached bathroom in between. Iruka tried to smile, but he seemed worried, and abruptly he reached out and hugged Naruto.

Naruto paused, his eyes widening in surprise.

"I know, I know," said Iruka. "You're a ninja, not a child. But still... what you've been through is amazing. Try to stay safe, okay?"

And Naruto let himself relax into the hug.

I got some real food from the communal cafeteria, took a shower, and went to sleep. It took me a long time to really start to relax and let myself unwind from the day's tensions. I was shaking as I, at last, fell asleep.

We took the next three days to sit back and watch the other teams file in. All three rookie teams made it, as did Lee's team, the Oto team, and the Kazekage's children, among others. We even saw the older Konoha Genin with the glasses, who Sasuke and Naruto told me was named Kabuto, file in with his two teammates toward the end of the fifth day.

I was glad Hinata was okay, but we still weren't really talking, which was why when Ino got there she had something to tell me.

She had sat down next to me on the bed in my room. We had just finished discussing how horrifying the second test was, and then Ino said, "By the way, Sakura, I have a message to pass on, from Hinata."

I tensed, suspicious, but Ino laughed and said, "Don't worry, she's not telling you you're weak this time! It's... it's actually about that Sand kid. Gaara?"

I nodded. "He seems curious about me," I offered after a moment. And I couldn't figure out why, unless it was because of the person I'd reminded him of when I'd thrown my arms out in front of Konohamaru, telling Kankurou to stop. It wasn't like my replacement spell to get away from Kankurou had been anything special. "So I've got to admit, now I'm kind of curious about him."

"He's _interested _in you?" Ino looked horrified. "Sakura... that might not be such a good thing. Listen.

"On the very first day, Hinata and her team snuck up on Gaara's team. Hinata and her team hid and watched as Gaara's team approached an older Genin team - old and experienced, with big, muscly guys in it, right? And Gaara challenged them alone. He didn't even seem scared. And everyone thought Gaara was a cocky little shit who was about to get his ass handed to him...

"Everyone except Kiba's dog, Akamaru. Akamaru can sense chakra pressure. It's one of his fighting abilities. Akamaru was shaking for hours afterward, terrified by Gaara's huge chakra presence and enormous killing intent. Gaara has this big gourd full of animate sand - he can control it and he uses it to fight with - and Kiba said that to his extra sharp nose, it just _reeks_ of blood.

"Gaara didn't even seem to care if this team full of big guys had the correct scroll. Calmly and quietly, he promised to kill everyone he met along his way to the tower. So the big guy in the center tried to attack Gaara, but Gaara made a hard, impenetrable shield of sand that could block every kind of attack from every direction. And then Gaara moved to attack, and he just defeated this huge enemy so _easily. _He wrapped them up in sand, lifted them into the air, and then he closed his fist and the sand crushed them into a bloody pulp. He called the move his sand coffin. Went off on some freaky poetry rant about death, and about how he'd made it rain blood. But the really scary part was that, even as all this was going on, Gaara didn't seem to feel anything. Not at the screaming. Not at the blood. Not at _all. _And he just kept killing people. Even after they'd given up their scroll.

"So it's all over, and his teammate, his brother, goes over and says they have the correct scroll, you know? And then Gaara says he wants to go find more teams and kill them anyway. His siblings plead with him to stop and just let them go to the tower, and he tells them in this horrible, cold, emotionless way that he's never seen them as his siblings. And that he'll _kill _them if they deny him his lust for blood. They risk their lives just convincing him to _lower _himself to getting to the tower on the first goddamn day.

"Sakura, the boy's a psychopath. He's fucking crazy. Hinata made me come to you so we could all make a pact and _promise_, all three of us, that if we come up in a fight against Gaara... we'll surrender."

The story about Gaara had touched off something in the back of my mind. I remembered the hardness to his face and his eyes right before the second test, the way I'd thought he was already mentally "in the forest." I had thought Temari and Kankurou were the bad ones, but maybe I'd been wrong. It wouldn't be the first time.

The psychopathy to the story reminded me a little of Zabuza. But I don't think even the Demon of the Mist would have threatened to kill Haku.

* * *

When Lee came to me, he was still wearing his new look. I was pleasantly surprised.

"Gai-sensei told me I should 'find my own way' and not just copy him all the time," said Lee, shrugging and smiling. "He said he was proud of me. It was so touching!"

So Lee's _Sensei _dressed that way? I tried to imagine a grown man in a tight green body suit. It was not a fun picture.

"Lee, what is your Sensei like?" I asked.

Lee's eyes lit up. "Oh, he's amazing!" said Lee. "He's the only reason we got through this entire test! He's brave and noble and dramatic and he's tough but fair and -"

"He sounds great," I smiled.

"He is! This is really all thanks to him," said Lee, shrugging modestly.

"But we both got through okay on our own," I said.

"Yes, you certainly did too! You got injured, though." Lee touched the bandage on my nose.

"Oh. Yeah." I looked down, tucking my hands behind myself, suddenly self conscious. "It... it kind of messes up my face, doesn't it?" I remembered, then, that Lee had liked me because I was pretty.

"Not at all!" said Lee, surprising me, and I looked up hopefully. Lee was smiling. "It's a sign of a hard won battle. I think it's beautiful," he said, and he kissed me, long and warm, right there in the cafeteria in front of all the other teams and my teammates and everyone.

I tried to ignore Naruto's glare, Sasuke's stare, TenTen and Neji's exasperation, Ino's whistle, and the way Gaara's eyes never left me.

* * *

The next day, I saw Hinata walk up to Naruto and start a conversation with him. Surprised, he reciprocated warmly, leaning in close to her and tucking a careful arm around her. Hinata blushed and Naruto beamed, and it was one of the most adorable things I think I'd ever seen.

I tucked my hand warmly into Lee's and smiled as I watched them, genuinely happy in my own way.

"Romance flourishes!" Lee commented pleasantly, noticing my stare.

Of all the places for romance to flourish, the Forest of Death's tower was a rather unexpected one.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: The prelims will be as in canon. I didn't see why that would reasonably change, and I wanted to show with a few fights how things have changed because of my divergence. However, the final matchups and the battles during the invasion will all be brand new.

* * *

4.

On the afternoon of the fifth day, we were all gathered together in the tower's main room, which was a vast stone chamber with two floors: a bottom floor, and then an upper floor balcony that went all around the room and could be accessed from two staircases on the other side of the room. At the front of the room, overseeing everything, was a huge, painted pair of stone hands doing a ninja hand seal. The Hokage stood under the hands, a row of Jounin sensei behind him, the first and second examiners on either side of him, and two rows of Chuunin standing on either side of the examiners.

The Genin were collected in three neat rows in front of the Hokage. I counted twenty one people in all, or seven teams: me, Sasuke, Naruto, Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Lee, Neji, TenTen, Gaara, Temari, Kankurou, Zaku, Kin, Dosu, and Kabuto. Kabuto's two teammates were the only ones I didn't recognize by name. I wondered if that was enough for a pretest.

"First of all, congratulations on passing the second test," Anko began. "Hokage-sama will now explain the third to you." It felt like a step up - like only the important ones got the speech from the village leader.

"The third test will now begin," the Hokage said, louder than usual, in deep, raspy tones. His hands were folded neatly behind him. "But before I explain the third test, there is something that I would like to make very clear to all of you. There is a reason why we do a joint exam with our allied Hidden Villages. There are many pretty words said about it: 'to heighten good relations', 'to heighten the level of ninja on an international scale'. These words disguise the truth. The Chuunin Exam, ever since its inception, has taken the place of war." He let these words sit heavily on us for a moment.

"Throughout history, the elemental countries have always been at war with one another. No alliance has lasted through all of time. To avoid wasting unnecessary military power, in recent times the elemental countries have taken to deciding on a place, time, and specifications for our wars. To have them within safe boundaries, so to speak. A front was put up for this, entitled 'the Chuunin Selection Exam'. The Chuunin Selection Exam's true purpose is, and always has been, competition. International competition."

"So we're not really being tested on whether or not we're good Chuunin?" asked Naruto.

"The Exam does test to see who are worthy to be Chuunin and who aren't, that is true. But that is not its only purpose."

"Sir," I said, raising my hand - now that someone else had asked a question, it made me feel safer, "don't wars between ninja happen anyway?"

"They have in the past, that is also true. I never said it was a _good _system," the Hokage said dryly, and there were some chuckles from the older ninja assembled around him. "But that is the system. You are fighting in this exam for your country's, and your village's, honor. And I thought it was important to remind you of that in preparation for the third, and final, test."

I swallowed, feeling a weight coming down upon me. It was intimidating, being spoken to like this. It was as if there were some sort of invisible standard that we all, individually this time, would have to live up to. But even I wasn't prepared for what came next:

"The third test will be something like a spectator sport. The fighting will be done in an arena filled with viewers. Feudal lords and celebrities from all over the world will be invited as my personal guests. Kage who have participating ninja will also attend." _It's always a big thing, when some of the best ninja in the world meet. _Kakashi's words echoed back to me. I saw the Kazekage's children straighten, out of the corner of my eye. "The third test will involve individual one-on-one battles. All the people assembled will see them. They will see every move you make, how you fight, everything you do. If there is a significant difference in power between one village and another, the successful village will be flooded with jobs and its country's military prestige will heighten in the international eye. If a village is seen as weak, everything I just mentioned will decrease. You are to be shown off, paraded as an example of what your village has to offer."

"So we're risking our life in these battles for the good of our village?" Kiba asked.

"For your village... and your country. And also for yourselves. A ninja's true power is only born in life or death battles," said the Hokage.

And yeah, that was great. I could risk my life, no problem. I hadn't really expected to make it this far anyway, so I couldn't complain about being offered such a chance. But... to fight in front of all those _people? _I hadn't expected that. It frightened me, strangely more so than the idea of dying via sand coffin at the hands of Sabaku no Gaara.

"So what does all this have to do with good relations?" TenTen asked. "Why the lie?"

The Hokage smiled dryly. "It's not a lie," he said. "For two countries to decide only to kill each other in an Exam _is _good relations in the world of the ninja."

I wondered, once again, what I had gotten myself into.

* * *

"I don't care about any of this," said Gaara, breaking through the moment clearly, in the tone of someone who was used to being listened to. "Tell us the details of this life or death test." Death, it seemed, was all that mattered to him.

"Very well," said the Hokage. "I will begin an explanation of the third test, but -"

In an obviously practiced and somewhat cheesy move, one of the ninja I'd thought was a Chuunin ran out and knelt down in front of the Hokage.

"Please, Hokage-sama," he said, "I am Gekkou Hayate, the judge for the third test. Let me explain."

"Please do," said the Hokage, nodding once.

Hayate stood and turned around. He was pale, thin, and sickly looking. "Before the third test, there is something we need to do," he said, and then he broke into a hacking cough that was physically painful to listen to. So we would have to do a pretest. How did one pretest for a life or death battle? Hayate continued at last, "... We will have preliminary one on one matches in this very room. Half of those in this room will continue on to the final round of the third test, half of those will lose their battle and will not be able to be selected as Chuunin. Injury or death are also possible."

So that was how you pretested for a life or death battle. With another life or death battle. Despite myself, I was nervous.

"There are too many examinees left," Hayate explained, shrugging, because some people had made noises of protest. "There can only be a certain number of matches in the final round, or the spectators will get bored. It's standard regulation."

Boredom. We were fighting now to avoid _boredom. _The ridiculousness of it.

"We are also pressed on time, so anyone who wants to quit after hearing the explanation, just raise their hand. You will no longer be tested in teams..." Here, Hayate had another spurt of horrific coughing. "... The matches will begin immediately."

"Immediately?! But we just got through with the second test!" That came from someone on Ino's team.

"I'm not ready. I'll quit." And that voice came from Kabuto, the older Genin who had tried to quiet down the rookies before the first test. All the Konoha rookies looked up, startled.

"But Kabuto-san, you've been trying so long and working so hard!" said Naruto immediately. He must be referring to something Kabuto had said while I wasn't there.

Kabuto smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. I don't think I'm ready. I'm too worn out to do well."

"Who's ever ready to fight to the death? It's never going to get any easier, Kabuto-san." I tried to seem reasonable - not aggressive.

"I'm sorry..." said Kabuto again, looking downward.

Gekkou Hayate consulted his notes. "Yakushi Kabuto of Konoha? Alright, you can leave."

Kabuto said something to his teammates, who seemed displeased - it sounded oddly like, "He's already left, so what's the point?" - and then gave us a shy sort of smile as he left. He was far too contented with leaving. There was no shame with him, as there had been with the people who had quit during the first test. Either he wasn't a very good ninja or he hadn't entered the Exam with very fervent hopes of becoming a Chuunin. Yet Naruto said he'd tried at this Exam before and was working hard at it. How very puzzling.

I suddenly realized that the only other person looking away from the examiner besides the rookie nine was Sabaku no Gaara, who turned vaguely curious eyes to Naruto and then turned his stare to me. It was impassive and entirely unnerving.

"May I assume there are no other people who wish to retire early?" Hayate asked, with a slight cough. Everyone looked around to the examiner again.

I looked around me. All the others either were hard to read or obviously had some determination to stay. I thought of myself for a moment. Did _I _want to retire? The risk of death somehow seemed more overt than it had before. There was also the chance that if I made it through the pretest, I would have to fight in front of all those people. But if I would have to do that eventually to make it to Chuunin anyway... I mean, I did _want _to make Chuunin. I didn't think I'd get to the final round, but I owed it to myself to at least try, didn't I? I could only hope that whoever was my opponent didn't kill me. And on that note, I would keep my promise to my friends. If Gaara was my opponent, I would surrender.

But for now, at least, I kept my hand down.

"Alright. They will be one on one matches, as has already been said," said Hayate. "Now that we have exactly twenty people, we will have exactly ten matches. The winning ten will advance to the third test. There are no rules in these matches from here on out. You both go on until one person either is knocked unconscious, dies, or surrenders - whichever comes first. However, what I say goes," Hayate coughed, rather ruining the effect of his words, "so if I judge a match is over, it stops immediately."

That was when a panel in the wall next to the giant hands slid aside. An electronic bulletin board was revealed behind it. All twenty names would be put into the bulletin board, and then it would randomly select two names for each battle, crossing those names off the list as it went along. Anko had someone start the board, and then in a moment the first two names appeared in gold on the screen:

_Akadou Yoroi vs Uchiha Sasuke_

Akadou Yoroi must be one of Kabuto's teammates. He was big, an older Genin, and certainly more experienced. "Be careful, Sasuke," I said.

Sasuke brushed me off in irritation, eager to test himself.

"Those whose names were called, please step up," Hayate said in a firm tone. "This match's fighters are Uchiha Sasuke and Akadou Yoroi! Are there any objections?"

"No," said Sasuke and Yoroi as one, looking at each other. Yoroi seemed, in his own way, as angry and determined as Sasuke.

Hayate also looked out at the surrounding other Genin. But I certainly didn't have any objections. Sasuke could fight if he wanted to. "Lucky bastard," I distinctly heard Naruto mutter, and I fought back my amusement.

"We will now begin the fights. Everyone other than the two fighters, please move upstairs to the balcony. Your Jounin Sensei will meet you there," said Hayate.

* * *

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto called out, and it wasn't in an angry tone after everything Kakashi had put us through, which had to be some sort of miracle.

He rushed over, and Kakashi said as usual, "Don't hug me."

Standing near him, I turned to the fight beginning below. "Do you think Sasuke will be okay?" I asked our Sensei.

"We'll just have to see," Kakashi said simply, but he was watching closely.

Sasuke and Yoroi got into stances across from each other. "Begin!" Hayate called, and Sasuke activated his Sharingan.

Kakashi's eyes widened. "Did he get that when -?" So he _had_ heard. I nodded.

"I thought your teammate said he didn't have the Sharingan!" Lee called down the balcony to me; Neji had raised an eyebrow.

I smiled sheepishly. "Until recently, he didn't. I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to say any more."

Lee and Neji looked down at the fight with renewed interest. So did several other people. It was another, visceral reminder that blood was what mattered in the world of the ninja.

Yoroi seemed to prefer close combat; he ran forward and engaged Sasuke in it, and at first it seemed like Sasuke was obviously coming out on top. His Sharingan allowed him to read Yoroi's movements like an expert and block them even before they were finished, and Yoroi was about Sasuke's speed so Yoroi kept being pushed farther and farther back. Yoroi didn't seem too worried about this, and I also noticed an odd flash coming from his hand whenever he made contact with Sasuke. At first, I didn't connect the two puzzling details; Sasuke didn't seem to notice either thing at all and was instead savoring the fact that he was winning, smirking confidently.

But then something strange began to happen. Sasuke's moves began to seem slower, and more sluggish. He started to block slower. Once, he was punched and flew all the way across the room, sliding, because he couldn't block in time. I gasped involuntarily.

"What happened?" shouted Naruto. "He was winning!" There were some similar murmurs going up and down the balcony.

"What - what are you doing with that chakra in your hands?" Sasuke asked, and even his speech seemed slurred; he stood, sagging, with effort. "At first, I thought you were just using it to help your blocks and amplify your abilities... but..."

Yoroi smirked. "I can suck chakra out of people's bodies," he said quietly, "with my hands." That was why he was a hand to hand expert!

Yoroi ran at Sasuke again, who shouted, "Fine! Then I'll just copy!" He narrowed his eyes, the tomoe in the Sharingan twirling, and he went to block and then grab Yoroi's arm... And nothing happened.

Sasuke's eyes widened.

"Unluckily for you," said Yoroi, "my body's been genetically modified. It's an innate ability. No copying allowed." Then he grabbed Sasuke's arm, and Sasuke sagged, the Sharingan twirling rapidly...

"Sasuke!" I shouted. "Turn it off! You're going to get chakra exhaustion!"

Sasuke closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, they were merely black. He broke with effort out of Yoroi's hold and started backpedaling as fast as he could, throwing kunai at Yoroi to keep him away. Yoroi blocked all the kunai with the flat part of his own and kept advancing. If it were me, I'd have activated a genjutsu, a long distance spell, and tried to defeat Yoroi that way, but Sasuke didn't really have anything like that.

To his credit, he tried the one thing like that he _did _have. With what must have taken an enormous amount of chakra effort, he let a series of small fireballs fly from his mouth and straight at Yoroi, firing them across a great expanse with precision as Yoroi ran to dodge them. Yoroi was fast; he got a couple of stray burns, some singed clothing, but Sasuke couldn't get a clear hit on him to kill him.

Then Sasuke collapsed, and I cried out involuntarily.

It was horrible to watch afterward. Sasuke had used up all his chakra. He kept trying to get to his feet, shaking, and he kept collapsing backward. Yoroi walked right up, Sasuke was crawling to get away, and Yoroi placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder and began draining away the rest of his chakra. His eyes sagging and then closing, Sasuke quickly collapsed.

Even Kakashi's eyes had widened. Naruto looked stunned.

It was incredibly disheartening just to watch, the beautiful boy who had been the best in our class being defeated so easily in a wider arena. How could any of the rest of us rookies possibly hope to win our own matches?

I waited and waited... and Yoroi kept standing there, draining away chakra... and suddenly my eyes widened and the blood drained from my face. "He's going to kill him!" I shouted, distraught, moving to run toward Sasuke no matter how stupid it would be. Kakashi held me back, and I saw down the balcony that Asuma-sensei was having to do the same with a shouting Ino. I looked up to glare furiously at Kakashi-sensei! How could he stop me from helping -?

But Kakashi's face looked pained. "You can't interfere," he said. "In these matches, such things are allowed."

"But Yoroi's a Konoha nin, too! He doesn't have anything to _prove_!" I shouted, emotional. "There's no reason for this!"

And Yoroi kept standing there, smirking, draining away chakra. I looked pleadingly at Hayate, who was standing off to the side of the lower floor. Hayate met my eyes and sighed. "Alright," he said at last, "the match is obviously over. I'm intervening. Akadou Yoroi is the winner. Medics, please come take away Uchiha Sasuke."

And I watched, helpless and distraught, Kakashi still holding me back, as medics came and put Sasuke on a stretcher, taking him away. I watched until he'd disappeared behind a set of doors. At last, when Sasuke was gone, I relaxed, heavy and saddened and worried. "Kakashi-sensei," I said, turning to look up at him, "I know you usually wait to be asked and I don't have any business telling you how to run your team. But when this is over, you should really give more training to Sasuke and Naruto."

Kakashi nodded, not looking at me, something tight around his eyes.

When I looked away again, Gaara across the room on the other balcony met my stare. I glared at him furiously, upset, and Gaara raised an eyebrow. He seemed almost puzzled by how upset I was. Well, of course he was puzzled, I told myself, _he was an emotionless psychopath. _I forced myself to look away, trying not to be nervous at how interested in me that emotionless psychopath still seemed.

It was not a promising start to the preliminary matches.

* * *

The electronic bulletin board was started again. The next two names flashed up:

_Abumi Zaku vs Aburame Shino_

"Who's the poor, pathetic ninja who's supposed to be having a go at me?" Zaku crowed.

Shino, the quiet "creepy bug kid", said nothing. But a little line formed between his eyebrows.

Hayate had the two fighters step up and announced the beginning of the match, stepping aside.

Zaku started out big, slamming Shino with twin air blasts from his hands and throwing him against the wall. But Shino refused to go down, even as he was battered about by air blasts. Then, all of a sudden, it was all over. Zaku went to start another air blast and then screamed out. The air blast didn't work. While Zaku was crippled in pain, Shino zipped quietly behind him and knocked him out neatly.

Everyone was left staring, uncertain as to what had occurred.

"... I noticed his air blasts were only possible because of two long metal tubes running through his arms and connecting to open holes in his palms," Shino explained tonelessly after a moment. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking. Then Shino pointed a finger, and from out of the holes in Zaku's hands crawled bugs. Hundreds and hundreds of bugs. So many they'd plugged up the air holes. "In my clan, we have what are called kikai bugs," said Shino quietly. "They live on our bodies and feed off our chakra, and in return they let us control them and fight for us in groups, also sucking the chakra from others. They can be quite... useful."

The bugs retreated one by one to their place inside Shino's sleeve.

Hayate was called over to check, but there was really no denying it. Zaku was unconscious and his arms were ruined. The chakra in the air holes, seeking a way out, had burned gruesomely through the skin of his arms, revealing the ruined remnants of the metal tubes underneath the bloody tissue. "This match is over," said Hayate quietly, standing. "The winner is Aburame Shino."

Shino showed no emotion and simply went back to his place on the balcony like nothing had happened as Zaku was also taken away on a medical stretcher. It was an eerie fight, not much more reassuring than the first.

"What the hell?" Naruto asked loudly, surprised. "Was Shino _that _strong the whole time?"

"That's the Aburame clan," said Kakashi. "They're reclusive by nature."

* * *

The next match was called:

_Tsurugi Misumi vs Kankurou_

"Kakashi-sensei," I asked, puzzled, "why doesn't Kankurou have a surname?"

"None of them do," said Kakashi, surprising me. "Surnames are not a thing that occur in Suna. Actually, more to the point, Lee and TenTen on Gai's team don't have surnames either."

"But Rock..." I began.

"Is a surname Lee crafted for himself," said Kakashi, and then he said gently at my confusion, "When civilian children are orphaned in Konoha, they lose their surname. Only the bloodline clans get to keep their surname."

Lee was an orphan? I never knew that. I thought of losing the name "Haruno." "But that - that's not fair," I said, frowning.

Kakashi shrugged. "It's the way things work," he said.

"So why do I have a surname?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Because the Uzumaki _were _a clan. A foreign clan. They were destroyed in the Third Ninja War and one of the survivors came here. That survivor was your mother," said Kakashi, surprising both of us. "She died during the Kyuubi attack. But the Uzumaki are why you have such huge chakra and such enormous endurance."

Naruto was still back at the last part. "... You knew my mother?" His eyes were wide with wonder.

"Another time," said Kakashi, almost evasive. He nodded behind us. "The match is about to start."

We turned around. Kabuto's other teammate and Sabaku no Kankurou were facing each other across the arena floor below. Kankurou had taken off the wrapped-up weapon strapped to his back, which had to have his puppet inside it.

The boy I didn't know, Misumi, seemed more serious and less arrogant than his teammate, who was watching closely and seemed almost challenging. But he still rushed in and attacked first. I wondered if Kabuto was the only one on the team who seemed to have any sort of reserve.

Misumi used a technique where he unhinged his joints and then controlled his limbs with chakra. He wrapped his rubbery limbs around Kankurou, pinning him in and then wrapping his arms tightly around his neck. Misumi ordered Kankurou to surrender.

I waited for Kankurou to use one of his chakra strings to get Misumi's limbs out from around his neck, but Kankurou did not. "Never," he said instead, dramatically, and I knew at once that something was up. I glanced at his siblings. Temari was watching closely, but didn't seem especially afraid. I distinctly saw Gaara roll his eyes and look away.

I went back to watching Kankurou and Misumi just in time to see, startled, that Misumi had broken Kankurou's neck! But something was wrong. There was this weird - clanking sound coming from Kankurou's broken neck. And I realized it a second before anyone else besides perhaps Kakashi did: that wasn't Kankurou. It was a puppet.

And then pieces of Kankurou's "face" began coming off, revealing themselves to be bits of hardened sand under an illusion. (So Gaara did help his siblings?) Underneath the face was the mechanical face of a puppet. The puppet's face turned right around in its socket, staring at a startled Misumi eerily, and then several mechanical arms came out from the puppet, wrapping the rubbery Misumi up in a vice-like grip. Misumi struggled, but he couldn't move - he was subdued.

That was when out of the wrapped up container came the real Kankurou, controlling the puppet with soft blue chakra strings that he suddenly let become visible for everyone to see. I was startled again. How far in advance had the Suna siblings been prepared for this battle?

"Since his opponent cannot move," said Hayate, "the winner is Kankurou."

"Two against one!" said Naruto. "That can't be legal. Can it, Kakashi-sensei?" He turned around to Kakashi. This did not seem to appeal to Naruto's innate sense of fairness.

"It's allowed," said Kakashi, nodding.

"It's just a weapon, Naruto," I pointed out. "Like a kunai, or a spell. Shino's bugs were the same thing - they weren't another human being. They were a weapon. I heard that Kankurou's brother can manipulate sand, sort of like Haku could manipulate ice. That's the same. They're all just weapons."

Naruto seemed thoughtful. "So... the weirdos are the ones who are prepared?" he said at last.

"In this case, yes," said Kakashi.

Hayate turned on the board to begin the next match. The names scrolled through and scrolled through... And that was when they hit on the next two names.

There was a long silence as I started at the board in disbelief, horrified, and my opponent did the same. I felt a bundle of nerves start up in my stomach.

"Well, Sakura," said Naruto at last, "you'd better hope you're pretty fucking bizarre."

The next match was _Haruno Sakura vs Yamanaka Ino._


	5. Chapter 5

5.

In a kind of dread, I went down the stairs to stand in front of my opponent, my best friend, Hayate standing beside and between us.

Ino and I met each other's eyes for a moment, each of us serious, almost solemn. A silent understanding passed between us.

Then Ino smirked, confident as always. "No offense, Sakura," she said. "You're my friend. You always have been. You're a great girl. But my family's counting on me becoming a Chuunin, so this is the end for you."

I swallowed, but I was determined; I felt my face harden. Ino had been my great protector, my inspiration. I had never fought Ino on anything. I had always deferred to her ninja expertise; I had let her pursue Uchiha Sasuke. I had watched Ino become easily the best kunoichi in our graduating class. I had watched her get all the ninja clan blood advantages I didn't have. I had watched her excel in female etiquette classes where I had failed and been clumsy and boyish. Ino was always the one supporting me, never the other way around. She had stood by me when even Hinata hadn't. And even now, a part of me whispered that perhaps Ino deserved to be a Chuunin more than I did.

But I couldn't listen to that part of me anymore. Right now, I was a ninja.

I slid into a stance. "No," I said simply, quieter than I'd meant to. "No, it's not." I could feel all eyes on me.

Ino slid into her own stance then; I could see in her eyes surprise, but also a kind of respect. "Well," she said, "here's to a good fight, then." I nodded. It wasn't personal. We were both just ninja.

"Do well, Sakura-san!" That was Lee.

"Kick her ass, Sakura-chan!" That was Naruto.

I fought back a smile. Inside, I felt the weight of their expectations, but also a warm bravery I hadn't known before.

"If there are no objections?" Hayate said questioningly. There was a pregnant pause. Hinata was silent, watching closely, as was - I could tell - Sabaku no Gaara. Hayate stepped back. "Begin!"

Ino came at me, engaging me in taijutsu. I noticed it immediately: despite all her words, Ino was going soft on me. She blunted all her attacks, slowed all her movements, and spent a lot of her time just blocking me. Furious, suddenly, I attacked with everything Sasuke had taught me over the past few months. I tore down her guard, punched her across the face, and sent her flying back.

Ino skidded across the floor and then stopped in shock, staring at me and feeling her face where I'd hit. I heard Hinata gasp. I felt a moment of guilt, but I was too hard for it and it faded away. "You're going easy on me," I said, straightening, my tone deadly. "You shouldn't do that. I keep telling you and Hinata: I've improved a lot. There's nothing personal about this fight. If you keep going easy on me, I _will _defeat you."

I knew it would walk me right into Ino's worst and most mind-fucking attacks, and I said it anyway. A part of me was stunned at my own daring.

Ino stood slowly. She smirked. "Well, how embarrassing for me," she said. "So that's how you want to play it. Alright." The smirk widened to a grin, and then she made a hand seal. Ino had never been a close up fighter in the first place. She was a Yamanaka - a mind melder.

I'd known it was coming, but the mind control technique could only move in a straight line from Ino to another person. I dodged out of the way; Ino broke out of her hand seal without finishing the spell and threw out strings of ninja wire, grasping for me. I shot chakra into my feet and dodged them, jumping backward and backward; then Ino suddenly retracted the wire and shot forward, seeming to give up and engage me in hand to hand again. She aimed at me; I blocked and then went in to hit her face again. I hit her and she flew away, but at the same time I realized something had wrapped tight around my middle -

I looked down in alarm; the ninja wire! Shit! Ino had let me hit her so her hand with the ninja wire underneath its sleeve could get around my waist!

Ino stood, bloody lipped but smirking, holding me tightly by the ends of the wire. I struggled, but couldn't move. There was only one thing I could do now. I shot a kunai at her - if I tried to stab downward or do a hand seal, she would just move the ninja wire up to my hands - and she dodged the kunai easily, still holding tight onto me. She put the ends of the wire down and stabbed them with a kunai to hold them in place. I pulled but no go. I couldn't escape. Ino did the hand seal again, completed the spell this time, and she hit me with her mind control spell. And there was no way I could block it or dodge it now.

A ripple went through my mind and everything started to go dark -

No! _No!_ Not this time! I could feel it, I could feel her taking over my mind... If she got control of my body and put a kunai to my neck, I knew that would be the end for me. And it would be humiliating. I couldn't - I _couldn't _-!

I could feel my body shuddering, moving this way and that as Ino and I fought for head space, I could hear the gasps from the surrounding ninja on the balconies, Shikamaru speaking as if in explanation of Ino's ability. I turned my concentration away from that -

What could I do to gain the upper hand? This was _my _head, after all. I was supposed to be the smart one. Ino had just walked into the only place I had ever managed to defeat her before: the academics. The memorization and strategy. The _mind._

I made a little space in the back of my mind, a box or room of sorts, even as the rest of me was wrestling with Ino and her enormously painful chakra. I painted the room clearly - I painted it so that it looked like the view of Ino, her body sagging without consciousness, out across from me, so that it looked like whoever was in the room _was seeing through my eyes. _Then when I pushed Ino, I moved her around so it seemed like the back of my mind was at the front. I let her go. She cried out in triumph, and ran right into the box.

That was when I trapped her in there and I changed things. I set the room on fire. I let the flames eat out toward her, gave her the illusion that she was burning, in pain, and then once Ino was flailing, weak, struggling to get out of the box, I grabbed her up in my grasp and threw her out of my -

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD!" I screamed. Ino let my hands make the disengage seal and flew back, gratefully, to the relative peace of her own mind. I stood and straightened, breathing deeply, and then I was myself again.

"Sakura!" I heard more than one person cry out in joy.

Ino was shuddering, starting to straighten. I had to do it now, while she was distracted, so she couldn't stop me! I made the hand seal and replaced with the kunai I had thrown earlier, so that now I was _behind _Ino.

Then, craftily, one-handed behind my back, I made another hand seal, and I changed the layout of the floor for everyone but me. Because, why not? I could afford to show off a little.

I let the fire start at the center of the wire between us, and then spread slowly out from that point, fast and then faster, eating away at my corpse, letting it collapse, letting the scent of charred skin fill the air...

I heard gasps and screams, I heard one person make a retching sound, and Ino was horrified. "Shit!" she screamed, losing it completely, as she opened her eyes. "I'm still in her head!"

I snuck up behind her, invisible, and went to knock her out -

But Ino was smarter than I'd given her credit for. All those Academy years hadn't been for nothing. She realized, at the last second, that it had to be an illusion - just like it was in my head. "Release!" she shouted, panicked. "Release!" And she made a hand seal, burst chakra out into the air around her, broke out of my genjutsu - both layers - and then she saw I was gone across from her and she ducked shamelessly, crouching in fear, to avoid my punch.

I paused, just for a split second, my hand above her head, the world returned to normal. I had to admit, I was impressed.

But I was calm, having gone through stuff like this countless times with Kakashi-sensei, and Ino wasn't. She was still in a panicked state. She stood and whirled around, backing up faster and faster, blocking in fear, as I came at her with taijutsu after taijutsu, steady and strong and fast, just like I'd learned from Sasuke. I even channeled chakra into my limbs to make me seem faster and stronger, like Kakashi-sensei had taught me, something I wasn't even sure Ino could do.

In her state, I could probably even have paused and hit her with my fire dragon spell and she wouldn't have been able to dodge such a huge thing in time. But I didn't want to kill Ino, so I held back. I just wanted to beat her.

Still, with how fast and strong I was, the fight was over in an estimated ten seconds.

I swept Ino's legs suddenly, going for a different mode of attack, and then when she fell I kicked her right across the floor. She rolled over and over and then struggled to get up, painfully - That was when I started to feel a little ping of guilt. So I zipped right over, grappled with her for a moment, and then managed to pin her knees to the floor with my foot, pulling her arms behind her back.

"Just so you know," I told her, "_you _may not be holding back anymore. But I am."

Then I reached one hand out and chopped at the back of her neck. Ino shuddered and collapsed over, unconscious.

Feeling a little bit bad at how roughly I'd treated her, I set her carefully down on the floor, being gentle. Then I stood, looking steadily at Hayate, whose eyes had widened in something like alarm.

"... This winner's match," he said, surprised, in an oddly shaken voice, "is Haruno Sakura."

It was a strange moment for me. It was triumphant, and at the same time... I had just proven myself as a ninja, in front of both my friends, who at the beginning of all this had dismissed me as the weakest of the group. I had made it through the Forest of Death - defeating even Kin from Sound, one of our fellows, in the process - and then I had defeated Ino, in front of Hinata, to make it to the final round in front of all those people.

It was particularly significant that I had beaten Ino, because ever since I'd been a little girl I had been following along behind Ino's back. Ever since that moment when Ino had defended me from those bullies, even before I'd watched her become such a graceful and self assured budding woman - ever since Ino had defended me, I'd wanted to be as strong as Ino. It was why I originally became a ninja. And in this fight, I had proven myself the stronger. I had done what even Sasuke-kun couldn't, and had won the final round. I had bloomed.

I was proud, but at the same time I was almost frightened of myself.

I suddenly became aware of the stunned silence that had filled the room. Everyone was just gaping down at the floor below them. There was awe and not a little bit of fear there, and the minute I became aware of it, it made me self conscious.

But then Kakashi-sensei said something I will never forget.

"Everyone always underestimates Sakura," he said quietly. "She doesn't look like much. She's unassuming. She's from an unknown family. But," he suddenly said with conviction, "Haruno Sakura is my _best _student."

And I felt incredibly, incredibly good about myself - much better than I had before. Kakashi, like Naruto and Lee, had in a way saved me.

Everyone was still staring at me, so I smiled shyly, somewhat sheepish, and made a dorky little wave. Then, giving the whole thing up as a bad job, I hurried back up the stairs and toward my teammates on the balcony, a little shaky but strangely unharmed. Naruto was staring at me, amazed and something like envious. "That," he said, "was fucking _incredible."_

Lee came up to me and he didn't even kiss me. He just gave me a huge, fierce hug. His teammates and sensei Gai were almost insultingly surprised behind him. Then TenTen grinned, and gave me a thumbs up. Hinata's mouth was open, and Kurenai - who I suddenly remembered was a genjutsu specialist - was watching me, thoughtful and surprised. My other former classmates were not a little scared.

Then I looked across the balcony from me, and there was Sabaku no Gaara. He stared at me piercingly, his arms crossed over his chests and his hands clenched, and he was shaking - and I suddenly realized he was shaking from anticipation. From excitement. There was a distinctly unhinged look in his eyes. I looked away from that stare to find Kankurou staring between us, almost worried.

Kankurou had teased me. But he'd never actually attacked me before. He had never looked at me, I realized, like Gaara was looking at me right now. Like he wanted to attack me just to see what I was made of.

I avoided this, again, because I wasn't sure what else to do. I turned back to my fellow Konoha nin. Maybe nothing would come of it, I told myself, not really believing it but wanting to. Maybe nothing would ever come of Gaara's strange interest in me at all.

Asuma-sensei had taken up the unconscious, bruised Ino and brought her back to the balcony. I came over quickly to make sure Ino was alright, and so did Hinata. We kneeled down beside each other, not looking at one another but not fighting for once.

"Someone wake her up," I said tersely. "Make sure she's okay." Asuma began shaking Ino gently, trying to wake her.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Shikamaru asked me at last in disbelief.

"Yes," said Hinata, "when did you get more chakra than Ino?" I looked over at her in surprise. "I was watching with my Byakugan," she admitted softly, almost concerned. "You outlasted Ino in chakra. That's why you won. Sakura, just how hard have you been training?"

"... Hard?" was all I could say in response.

"Geez," said Shikamaru, "no kidding. That was terrifying."

That was when Ino began to stir herself awake. She blinked her eyes open - and then shot up, gasping. Only to find me knelt down beside her.

I attempted a smile. "Hi, Ino," I said apologetically.

She looked suspicious for a moment - and then something passed across her face and she groaned. "Ah, shit. I lost, didn't I?" There were some nods. She glared at me. "You know what, Sakura? You had just better be the best one on your team! Because if you're not... I just don't think I could stand the shame," she said heatedly.

I really did smile this time. "Kakashi-sensei confirmed it," I said. "The very best."

Ino relaxed slightly. "Well," she said begrudgingly, "there's that, at least."

We would be okay. We were still friends. And as I looked between Ino and Hinata, it occurred to me that maybe I _did _have some experience with friendly rivalry, after all.

* * *

By the time I had straightened and gone back to my own team, the next match had flashed up on the message board: _Temari vs TenTen._

As the fighters moved to the floor, I sat down. The days in the jungle trying to survive followed by my intense fight with Ino had suddenly all caught up to me at once, now that it was over at least for a while, and my legs felt weak. "Do you need to go...?" Kakashi asked me quietly, he and Naruto looking around at me in something vaguely like alarm. "Because if you do, there's no shame in that."

"No," I said, looking through the banisters at the beginning fight from where I was sitting. "I want to watch the others."

TenTen was bouncing a little on her feet, smiling in anticipation. Temari watched her contemptuously, calm, smug, and self satisfied.

Lee and Gai were shouting, "Do your best, TenTen!" Temari's siblings, as usual, said nothing. There was something very strict about their manner, right down to the serious expression of their Sensei, Baki, who was bald and dark-skinned, standing behind them.

Hayate called for the match to begin. TenTen immediately jumped back a ways - not too close, not too far. She could deal with both offense and defense. She watched to see what Temari would do. But Temari seemed just as cautious as TenTen: she did nothing.

At last, Temari smiled, a self satisfied smile. "Might as well get your licks in while you can," she said. "When I start attacking, you're finished. You don't seem skilled enough to evade me."

Temari's mocking continued all throughout TenTen's initial assault. TenTen seemed to be a weapons specialist, but it was a horrible match up. No matter how many weapons she unsealed, no matter how she threw them, no matter how much ninja wire she used, no matter how skilled she was, it didn't matter. The weapon strapped to Temari's back was a giant fan, and with some sort of wind spell she was able to wave it and have all the weapons miss their mark. Temari was wicked fast, too - TenTen couldn't get in a single good hit. And she didn't seem to have thought to leave explosive tags on the weapons that landed near Temari, as I perhaps would have. So the weapons all fell around Temari, harmless.

Shikamaru predicted TenTen's defeat, almost bored, before it even happened. Gaara said the same thing across the way: "This is pointless," he echoed flatly, almost annoyed, as he watched.

I wanted to believe in TenTen, who seemed like such a cool girl, but Shikamaru and Gaara proved correct. Temari attacked actively then, and she used the same spell Haku had against Sasuke and Naruto, a wind spell that shot a jet stream of air at the victim and left several small but deep cuts across their frame, at the same time slamming them against the nearest wall. TenTen couldn't dodge in time, and she fell through the air and then was slammed backward, right into Temari's fan, which ate so far into her abdomen that blood came out of her mouth, evidence of internal bleeding. TenTen was unconscious, draped across Temari's weapon, which was closed once more.

"That was boring," Temari eulogized, smirking. "Very boring."

At least she didn't go further and try to kill her.

"This match's winner," Hayate announced, "is Temari."

Then, in a needlessly cruel way, as though TenTen were a fly, Temari _swatted_ her fan outward and sent TenTen flying across the room. Lee had to leap down and catch TenTen to avoid her breaking bones or getting a severe concussion. Temari called TenTen "lowly trash." Lee tried to attack Temari in anger. Gai stopped Lee from attacking, but made a terse comment toward Suna himself. Gaara finally called to his sister calmly to get back over here, she'd already won, somehow managing to insult Lee in the same sentence. Lee glared at all the Sand siblings. Temari went, reluctantly.

Everyone had been exclaiming over Temari's viciousness beside me, but that was when I at last said it grimly: "That was going too far. She'd already won."

Naruto, who had been one of the exclaimers, looked over at me curiously. I watched as Temari went back to join her teammates. Only Gaara hadn't gone yet, and from all descriptions I couldn't see him losing either. I realized with a start that not a single sibling was injured. I _would_ just think it was Suna, but no other Suna team had made it past the second test. It had to be the special training the Kazekage's children had received. They represented their village well, even if they were a pack of bloodthirsty, stick-up-the-butt assholes.

I stood and went over to see TenTen, who had been brought up to the balcony by Lee and Gai. "We don't need you here," said Neji, flatly and rather rudely, from where he was knelt beside TenTen. I graciously forgave him because he was probably worried for his teammate.

"Neji! Sakura can stay if she wants," said Lee warningly.

I knelt down beside TenTen. "I saw her cough up blood," I told Gai. "You need to get a medic."

Gai started. "You're correct!" he said, and went to get a medic.

By the time I was back with my team, the next match had been announced: _Tsuchi Kin vs Nara Shikamaru._

I debated with myself internally for a moment. Should I tell Shikamaru about Kin's senbon and her sound-based genjutsu? I decided not to unless she seemed to be acting needlessly cruel toward him. I had never had any special relationship with Shikamaru. As selfish as it sounds, if it had been Naruto or Lee about to fight her, I might have said something.

Either way, it didn't end up mattering. While Kin was preparing to throw her senbon, Shikamaru made a hand seal. Kin paused. "What, the spell didn't work?" she asked mockingly - and then she gasped as her hand suddenly flew outward of its own accord.

Shikamaru's and Kin's shadows had connected, becoming one.

"I can control people's movements through their shadow," said Shikamaru, shrugging self deprecatingly. "It's a family thing."

And then Shikamaru won in the laziest way possible. He made himself and Kin each throw a shuriken. He dodged under it, Kin dodged under it, but Kin was closer to the wall than Shikamaru so she hit her head against the stone and passed out.

"This match's winner: Nara Shikamaru," said Hayate, almost puzzled. Shikamaru didn't look incredibly enthused, but then he never had.

And then the only girl in the room who hadn't gone yet was Hinata.


	6. Chapter 6

6.

The next match was flashed up on the board:

_Uzumaki Naruto vs Inuzuka Kiba_

It was hard to tell who was happier.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, everyone! The star of the show has arrived!" That was Naruto.

"Alright! This'll be easy!" That was Kiba, whose puppy Akamaru barked in agreement.

I had a sneaking suspicion it would not be as easy as Kiba had thought. Sasuke and I had trained Naruto extensively since the Academy, and if Naruto could defeat Haku and make Orochimaru pause with the power of the Kyuubi demon, he could certainly defeat a Genin.

On that note, I turned to a cheering Naruto and grabbed him by the collar. He paused, almost nervous, and then I leaned closer and muttered in his ear, "No matter what he says, don't let Kiba get to you. Remember the training Sasuke and I have been giving you. Remember to see it as a prank. And if all else fails... you do have _it."_ I let Naruto go and he stepped back, nervous but almost curious. After a moment, he grinned and nodded.

"Just don't kill him," I said aloud in dry amusement.

"Are you kidding me?!" Kiba heard me, down the line. He let out a barking laugh. "That's what you should be saying to me! I get the class dropout?! This is the best!"

Naruto's eyes flared, and then he paused and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. When he opened them again, there was deadly determination there. _Better, _I thought in satisfaction.

"Kiba-kun," Hinata scolded, looking from her teammate to Naruto as if torn.

Kiba and Naruto leaped down to the floor, getting into position across from each other. Kiba was grinning, bouncing on the balls of his feet, setting Akamaru down beside him. Naruto was harder to read, but obviously determined. It was easy to see who had been in Naruto's class and who hadn't. The first seemed either contemptuous, or puzzled by his new demeanor. The second were more curious:

Gaara was watching closely.

"He's not a bad fighter," I heard Lee say quietly.

"He's not the best, either," I heard Neji reply. "It's hard to tell."

Kakashi, though still quiet, never took his eyes off his third student.

"Seventh match, Uzumaki Naruto versus Inuzuka Kiba," said Hayate. "Any objections?" Hinata looked like she wanted to object, but not for any good reason the examiner would accept. She stayed silent. "Begin!" Hayate stepped back.

Kiba immediately threw two smoke bombs at Naruto and then rushed into the smoke after him. There were some sounds of hits for a moment.

"How is anyone seeing anything?" I asked, confused, leaning forward.

"The Inuzuka mimic dogs," said Kurenai, his Sensei. "Kiba's nose is amplified like a dog's. He can smell Naruto, but Naruto can't see him." (So was Kiba the one retching when I made the room smell like an illusion of charred human flesh?)

Suddenly, I saw Naruto rush out of the smoke cloud, just as Akamaru jumped straight at him, reaching out to bite him -! Naruto, with reflexes honed over our months of practice, dodged to the side and hit Akamaru over the head. Tiny Akamaru toppled over limply, falling to the floor, unconscious.

"Oops," said Naruto, and it looked like he felt genuinely bad. The smoke cleared and when Kiba saw Akamaru, he cried out, reflexively. "Well, you're the one who put him on the front lines!" said Naruto in exasperation, and Kiba growled.

Kiba took a food pill, doubling his chakra temporarily, becoming half beast, his teeth sharpening and his fingernails lengthening into claws not unlike the way Naruto's could if he wanted them to. I was worried Naruto might have to resort to that, but he didn't. Kiba leaped at Naruto, becoming a flurry of fast movement and taijutsu combos, but Naruto managed to keep up with him, using the taijutsu we'd taught him and channeling his enormous chakra reserves that Kakashi had told him about into his own limbs, and for that I was rather proud of him. Kiba wasn't immediately far superior, like Lee. This taijutsu fight, Naruto could handle.

So what the fight basically devolved into, for a good few minutes, was a brawl. Naruto got bloodied up by Kiba's claws, but Naruto also beat the shit out of Kiba, coming out with a few interesting combos by bouncing off the surrounding walls and leaping agilely over Kiba's head. Naruto kept slamming into Kiba, and Kiba kept clawing at Naruto, and they were both covered in blood and sweat. Kiba would sometimes use a move called Gatsuuga and whirl himself into a kind of drill, coming at Naruto, but it would have been more effective with the second of Akamaru and Naruto always managed to dodge that singular attack. It was a very heated, masculine sort of fight, which I guess maybe fit two such macho braggarts. Lee was very enthused by the display. (I rolled my eyes. _Boys.)_

But I had to admit, it _was _cool to see. It took a while, but Naruto started to get an edge over Kiba. Kiba was getting more and more emotional, while Naruto wasn't, or maybe it was just that Kiba was getting tired and Naruto was boosted by his clan's unreal stamina. Kiba started getting sloppy. Naruto just seemed to keep getting more precise.

Then Naruto knocked Kiba away, for what had to be the fifteenth time, and he made a hand seal. A Kage Bunshin appeared beside him. Naruto and the Kage Bunshin began attacking Kiba together, moving around and around him until not even I could figure out which one was which anymore. Kiba defended himself admirably from the two twin attacks, one from each side. But the Kage Bunshin was a physical copy. Kiba couldn't smell which one was the real Naruto.

"Fine then!" Kiba shouted. "I'll just find out who's the real one another way!"

Kiba spun in place, making himself a drill without launching himself at anyone, letting his claws out. One Naruto stayed put. The other jumped back, as if to protect himself. "Ha!" Kiba shouted. "That's the real one!"

He shot in Gatsuuga, drill-like, at Naruto - who dispersed. It had been the Kage Bunshin all along. Kiba couldn't stop and he drilled right into the stone of the wall behind the Naruto Kage Bunshin with a sickening crack. Kiba fell to the ground limply, and didn't get up. It was possible he had a concussion.

The real Naruto, who had taken Kiba's attack and had deep, bloody claw marks across his stomach, stood there, breathing hard, covered in blood - but he'd won.

"This match's winner," said Hayate after checking Kiba's still form, "is Uzumaki Naruto."

Smiling, I cheered for Naruto. So did Hinata, softer and more joyful. Even Kakashi seemed pleased. "He has improved greatly," said our Sensei. Meanwhile, Naruto, grinning reluctantly, staggered away to lean against a wall and just _breathe_. When the medics came out, most of them crowded around Kiba, putting him on a stretcher, but two also came over to get Naruto. Naruto began struggling. "No! I want to stay and watch the rest of the fights -!"

I watched sympathetically as he was taken away despite his protests. I could understand wanting to stay, but I'd been a little worried for Naruto. He needed healing. He should be alright with a bit of rest, though. And he'd also advanced to the final round.

I thought back in concern to Sasuke, his frustration with seeming weak. Who would have thought Sasuke wouldn't have made it but Naruto and I would?

* * *

That was when the next match flashed up on the screen:

_Hyuuga Hinata vs Hyuuga Neji_

"That sucks," I said immediately. "For family to have to fight each other." I looked over at Hinata - and my eyes widened in surprise.

Hinata was trembling. She looked terrified. Neji's face had darkened.

"Do you two... know each other?" I asked at last. "In more than a clan way, I mean."

Neji looked over at me. He was expressionless but a funny sort of smile played across his features. "Hinata never told you much about her clan's inner workings, did she?"

"Just that she doesn't get along with her father," I said uncertainly.

Neji's face hardened. "Yes," he said. "_Exactly."_

I looked over at Hinata, who still seemed frightened. She would not look Hyuuga Neji in the eye. What was going on? Neji scoffed and went down to stand at attention on the fighting floor.

After a moment, shaking, Hinata moved to join him. She walked past me, and our eyes met. The fear in her eyes was clear to see. It was as if she genuinely expected her cousin to kill her. That should have been my first clue, and maybe it was. I could have said something in that moment - should have said something - but after all the times she'd ignored me over the past few months, just once, I wanted to ignore her. I looked away, still angry deep down inside.

Hinata's shoulders slumped. She moved away to the fighting floor, already demoralized.

* * *

Hayate started the match, as usual, and stepped backward.

"This should be interesting," I heard Lee mutter.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Lee said, "Hinata is from the Hyuuga main family, the founders. Neji is from the Hyuuga branch family, who are subservient to the main family. There has been struggle between the two Hyuuga families in the past. All sorts of special techniques are only passed on from the Hyuuga clan head to other members of the main family."

I thought about it, and then my eyes lit in realization. "So, in other words, Hinata is the heir to her clan. But she doesn't please her father. Neji will never get the chance to be heir, no matter what he does."

_That_ was what Neji had meant. This was a chance to prove himself as superior to Hinata.

Neji spoke from the floor, where he was watching Hinata, who had retreated into herself at her timid worst. (Normally, I would have shouted out to encourage her, told her to stand up straighter. Because we were fighting, I didn't.) "Before we fight, let me warn you about one thing, Hinata-sama," said Neji. "You are not suited to ninja life. You should give up this fight. You are too kind. You seek harmony. You avoid trouble. You have no self confidence. You are no warrior."

All those things were true, except that last part. Hinata's kindness was what made her strong, in her own way. Her determination not to hurt her sister despite her father's orders was, in my eyes, admirable. I should have shouted out to Hinata _then, _told her to prove Neji _wrong. _I didn't.

"Hinata! Show him! Beat this asshole!" Ino did it for me, but she didn't say all the things Hinata really needed to hear, the things I was thinking. Nevertheless, Hinata straightened slightly.

"Your friends have more conviction than you," Neji said then, using this against her in a devastating attack of observation, and Hinata sagged again. "You are taking this exam unwillingly, to please your team. You do not want to be here."

"No, I -! I wanted to change myself, so I willingly -!" Hinata was frowning.

"You wanted to_ change_ yourself? Because you're the weakest person you know?" Neji spoke calmly, with dignity, but his face twisted.

Hinata started to say, "N -!" But then she looked up at me, and paused, and looked down again in something like shame. I realized I had taken that little bit of self confidence away from her with my victory.

Hinata was _not _the weakest person _I _knew. My heart cried out that it was true. Still, out of anger, I said nothing. My hands clenched the banisters tightly, and I couldn't tell who I was angry at anymore, Hinata or Neji or myself.

Neji saw Hinata's opening, and went for it. "You should give up," he repeated. "I will not go easy on you just because you are _weak. _This is not an exam for _weaklings." _I could see Hinata retreating further into herself and wondered, torn, if she would surrender.

"Hey, asshole! Lay off!" Ino snapped.

"You stay out of this! It is a family matter!" Neji's eyes flared. Then he closed his eyes, and when he opened them again he was calm, facing Hinata again.

"What is up with your teammate?" I asked Lee in a tense mutter. "He always seemed so nice." Lee winced. He and Gai were dead silent.

"I tell you that you are a weakling," continued Neji, gaining steam. "You have no honor. You say you want to change yourself? You spoiled child! People do not _change. _They are _fated _to be the way they are. You have been fated - from birth - as _weak. _Your father says you are weak. Your sister says you are weak. Everyone knows you have, from the beginning, been _weak."_

I was staring. Was it really as bad as Neji had said? Had Hinata really undergone this verbal abuse all her life?

"A failure is a failure, no matter how it paints itself. From the beginning of life, we are judged on whether we are a 'success' or a 'failure.' Whether we're pretty, or handsome. Whether we're intelligent, or witty. Whether we're talented. Whether we're sexy. Whether we're extroverted enough. Whether we have poise. Whether we have dignity. Whether we have _honor. _And if we are found wanting..." Neji shrugged. "We are failures. And we always will be. My failure is that I am of the branch family. Your failure is that you are _weak._"

At last, I yawned. "Geez," I said in a loud voice, looking away, "when is the fight going to start, you guys? All I hear is this constant, godawful _droning _sound coming from one of the fighters."

I tried to do what Naruto would do, and change the atmosphere of the room.

Kakashi smiled, Gai seemed dryly amused, Lee hid a smile of his own behind a hand. The entire tension in the room lifted, and I even heard Kankurou give a shout of laughter. I looked sideways toward the fight, trying to be casual.

Hinata's face had brightened.

"Fine," Neji snapped, though he seemed annoyed. "Let's get to it, then. Hinata-sama, do you surrender?"

I watched sideways, faux casual, clenching the banister, waiting for the verdict... Torn... _It would serve her right! _an angry, indignant part of me said. Deeper down, something screamed, _Hinata! Don't give up!_

"No!" Hinata said, and I was still torn. "I'm going to fight you, Neji-nii-san!"

"Don't blame me when you are beaten later on," said Neji warningly.

They both reached their hands up, and activated their Byakugan, and the fight began.

* * *

They both fought using the same Hyuuga taijutsu style, the Gentle Fist or Jyuuken, used in tandem with the Byakugan eyes. I had sparred with Hinata before while she was using it; it was hard to do anything against and it hurt like a _bitch. _How it worked was, the chakra ran through the body in veins like blood. This was known as the chakra circulatory system. It had what were called tenketsu points, release points for the chakra. The Hyuuga used their eyes to see the tenketsu points, and then their taijutsu goal was to close them all up with flashes of chakra, causing enormous internal pain and organ damage and closing up the ninja's ability to do chakra at the same time. I had never gotten more than a couple of stray hits from Hinata's gentle fist.

As I watched Hinata and Neji seriously fight with it, quick and powerful, I realized just how easy on us Hinata had gone.

Hinata and Neji were fast and furious, fearlessly hitting each other despite the possibility of them actually killing one another. Hinata was starting to seem angry and she was surprisingly aggressive, immediately getting the advantage on Neji. Then she went for the throat, proverbially speaking, going for the tenketsu point right above Neji's heart. And in one single swift, smooth, effortless move, revealing how easy he had been going on her all along, Neji blocked, pushed Hinata's arm away, and instead went for Hinata's heart. He made contact, and Hinata paused in shock, shuddering.

Blood began issuing from her mouth.

"So this is the best the main family could do?" Neji raised a contemptuous eyebrow in response to Hinata's wide, betrayed eyes.

And it escaped from me involuntarily: "_Hinata!"_

And I realized, in that one moment when I thought Hinata was dead, that Hinata _had _been my friend - all along.

Hinata was not dead. She started at my shout, and went in for another attack, and Neji blocked again and hit the tenketsu points all along her main fighting arm. Then he pushed her away - she fell - and sent her skidding along the ground. He began walking toward her. "This is the difference between our powers -"

"Hinata," I cried out, desperately, suddenly forgetting all our months of fighting, "try something else, something besides Jyuuken!"

So Hinata tried. She threw kunai and Neji blocked them with the flat of his own, scoffing that she was shameful. She dragged herself away with one arm and then, standing with difficulty, coughing up more blood, she strung ninja wire on the way in between them. Neji cut right through all the ninja wire with his knife. Hinata kept backing up farther and farther, fearful.

Genjutsu wouldn't work on Neji's Byakugan. Even I probably wouldn't have been able to defeat him. But she could try something like my fire dragon, she could try -! Surely she had something like that? Surely there must be something?!

Distraught, I leaned forward to shout to her again, and Lee shot out a hand to stop me, looking solemn and sad. "Sakura," he said, "not even _I _can defeat Neji." Our eyes met for a moment, and I realized the full weight of that. The blood drained from my face.

Neji - Neji was going to kill her. He was going to kill his cousin.

Neji stalked forward, Hinata tried to stand up with effort, Neji hit her in the abdomen again and she fell back, coughing more blood. Neji raised a hand to kill her -

"_Hinata!" _I shrieked.

"I surrender -!" Hinata's voice came, pathetic. Neji paused. And then he stood back, smirking, satisfied. Hinata breathed deeply, closing her eyes in defeat, lying there amid her own blood. I had never seen anything so sad.

Kurenai was immediately down there, kneeling over Hinata, tending to her Genin. Ino was right behind her. Before I could stop myself, powered by my fury, I leaped over the banister and down in front of Neji, my face twisted in fury.

"You -!" I growled, and then I shoved him. "_You -!"_

"Are you picking a fight, then?" Neji asked, smirking, seeming almost amused, and in that moment I realized Hyuuga Neji was a complete and utter _asshole._

"Someone tear these two apart!" Hayate barked, coughing. "This is against regulation!" Kakashi and Gai were immediately between us; Kakashi held me back, gently.

"Sakura," he said, "that's enough."

I was still glaring at Neji, breathing hard.

"It was her fate," said Neji. His face hardened. "She has her fate," he said darkly. "I have mine."

"You know what, Neji?" I said. "Someday, someone's going to prove you wrong about that fate of yours. They're going to put you in your place. And _you - are going to realize - all the horrible things you've done - in the name of your own selfish anger!"_

Neji was glaring at me. Almost defensive.

"And I hope," I said quietly, snarling, "that Hinata and I are there when it happens."

I stormed off and knelt down beside Hinata. "Hinata," I said, choking, my face breaking. "Hinata, I'm sorry - I'm _sorry - _for everything!"

Ino was quiet, looking from one to the other.

Hinata's eyes fluttered open. She looked at me, and smiled, a terrible, accepting smile. "I am, too," she whispered. And then her eyes fluttered closed, her face deathly pale, her expression still in that sad smile. I realized Hyuuga Hinata, for all her surrender, was the bravest person I had ever met. And she might die.

Hinata was loaded onto one of the medical stretchers. I went to go with her, as did Ino, but a medic held us back. "Stay back, please," he ordered brusquely.

"But -!" It was no use. We watched her leave, miserable. Ino and I looked at each other, and I realized suddenly that there were tears in the fearless Ino's eyes. And then my vision was blurring, and my eyes were burning, and _damnit -!_

I turned around, and there was Lee. I remembered he was Neji's teammate and I glared at him, lifting my chin defiantly. Lee tried a smile. "I'm sorry," he offered simply, holding out his hands, and he genuinely sounded it.

Unable to bear it anymore, I ran forward, burying my face in his jacket. After a pause, he put his arms around me, and I let a few tears leak out into his cloth, the reassuring scent of his skin, the trained hardness of his frame. He rubbed my back once, and it almost left me sobbing right there, but no _way _was I going to start sobbing when Hinata had just been so strong.

"He's wrong, you know," said Lee quietly. I paused, clutching his coat. "I keep telling him. A failure can change with hard work, like I did, coming from nothing. Neji doesn't want to listen because he doesn't think his fate will ever change."

I would realize later on, as I was led carefully back up the stairs by Kakashi and Lee, that no one had looked happy at the bullying defeat. Even Gaara looked affected.


	7. Chapter 7

7.

"Hey." I looked up.

There had been a pause in the fights because the blood was being mopped from the floor. I was sitting there against the balcony wall beside a silent and downcast Ino, and we were both trying very hard not to _look _at said floor. I hadn't lost, but I just felt so... defeated.

It had been Kankurou's voice that had spoken. Kankurou was approaching me. I looked around to find that he had left his siblings on the balcony on the other side of the room, and come over to talk to us. I was slightly suspicious.

"What do you want?" I asked, rudely I'll admit.

"I'm not sure if you remember me," he said, smiling with a fake, trained sort of pleasantness. "I'm -"

"The guy who creatively used chakra strings to sexually harass me," I said flatly. "Yeah. I remember."

Ino was staring from one to the other, but at this she scowled. "Well, buzz off, then!" she snapped.

To my pleasure, Kankurou looked more than a little discomfited. "Yeah, about that..." he said, looking away. "Look. I - I was just teasing, alright? And, hey, creative. That's a good word." He brightened.

I had to admire his sheer nerve. I smiled despite myself. "You obviously want something," I said distrustfully, looking him up and down. "What is it?"

Kankurou saw the opening for what it was. "So, that Hyuuga Neji guy," he said leadingly, leaning forward and smiling. "It sounds like we'll be seeing more of him."

My face darkened. "Not if I had my way, we wouldn't be," I muttered, and Ino smirked grimly.

"Yeah, no kidding," said Kankurou, who was obviously just pretending to agree. "He seems like a bad character. What is this Hyuuga Neji all about, anyway?"

So that was what he was looking for. Information. I took a deep breath and reeled off flatly, "Neji is a subservient member of one of the oldest and most powerful ninja clans in Konoha. He's obviously some of the best they have to offer and has a gigantic chip on his shoulder because he'll never get to be a lead member of his own clan. He has a Doujutsu with X-ray vision and a taijutsu fighting style known to no one outside Konoha that can cause major internal organ damage with one well-placed stray hit. None of this should be much help in defeating him." I looked over at Kankurou, glaring. "Is _that_ what you were looking for?"

Kankurou watched me sideways, guarded, for a moment, as if he'd never really seen me before. "Yeah," he said. "That's it. Now, look." He kneeled down and started speaking softer. I backed up a little in surprise. "The real reason I came over here is to warn you about my brother. He seems interested in you and -"

"And if I ever get paired in a fight with him, I should surrender. Yeah. So I understand. Your brother's actions in the Forest of Death have become infamous," I said as Kankurou looked surprised. "News travels fast."

Kankurou winced. "... Oh," he said. "Yeah, look. You see how he is right now?" Gaara looked like he had after his fight with me: tight as a bowstring, hands clenching his arms, shaking slightly, eyes wide and anticipating, unhinged. "When he looks like that, never approach him. Fighting... and blood... get him excited."

"That's disturbing," I admitted.

"I'm stuck with him. You don't have to tell me. Just be careful. Temari was the one who recommended I go do 'recon on Neji', and she seemed casual, but I'm pretty sure this is what she meant. Now I have to go before Gaara gets suspicious. He's a sharp little shit. Alright?"

I nodded and looked after him in surprise as Kankurou, smirking as if confident, walked down the stairs and back over to his team's side of the balcony.

"What the hell was all that about?" Ino asked, mystified.

"I don't know," I admitted. Which had Kankurou and Temari been more interested in: the information, or the warning?

* * *

"The matches will now resume," said Hayate from the floor.

I stood up and went to go stand with the others. "You'll be next, Lee, I'm sure of it!" said Gai. Gai had been counseling his excited student the entire afternoon.

"No!" said Lee paradoxically. "I've waited all this time, now I want to go last!"

"Finish on a dramatic note?" I asked in amusement.

"Exactly! You understand me, Sakura-san!"

"Lee, you've found the one for you!" said Gai enthusiastically, clapping me on the back and pushing me a couple of steps forward. "And who'd have thought? From my rival Kakashi's team?!"

"Certainly not me," said Kakashi dryly.

"That answer is very cool and annoying, eternal rival!" said Gai, as enthusiastically as he seemed to do everything.

"Shut up, guys, the board is starting up," said Shikamaru in annoyance, but I saw him look sideways in worry at his friend Chouji. I could see what he meant: Chouji had better hope he got Dosu from Oto, because the only other people left were Lee and Gaara. And just as I realized that, I felt a chill of foreboding.

I saw it happen just a second before it was about to happen:

_Gaara vs Rock Lee_

"Alright, it's my turn!" said Lee, leaping into the air, thrilled. "Murphy's Law! I said I wanted it to happen so that it didn't happen! Ha! Fooled you, you stupid board!" It was awful, how _happy _he looked.

I grabbed him by the arm in alarm. "Lee," I whispered urgently, "Lee, you have to surrender!"

Lee paused, fading, and he looked at me like I was crazy. "Surrender!" he said, indignant. "I can't do that! I won't allow it!"

"But - Gaara -!"

"Lee must fight, he is a man and a warrior," Gai intoned deeply.

"_But Gaara's going to kill him." _I could not over-emphasize this point.

Even Lee paused a little at this pronouncement. "Have a little faith, Sakura-san," he said uneasily. "I could defeat either of your teammates easily, and you know it. I've been out of the Academy for over a _year. _I'm ready!" He jumped a little, irrepressibly.

"But, but Lee - Hinata told me about Gaara - she told me he can't be beaten - that he's a bloodthirsty killer -"

"Anyone can be beaten!" said Gai, frowning. Even Kakashi seemed surprised at my fervor.

I nearly growled in frustration. _They weren't getting it. _I looked around to Ino for help.

She shrugged. "I'd surrender," was all she could say, looking for once uneasy herself.

"Surrender is not an option!" Lee reiterated.

"_Get down here. Now." _Gaara was waiting on the floor, glaring. I reminded myself that Gaara was only impatient because he wanted to make it rain blood again. Lee leaped down to the floor, and I gasped in alarm, reaching for him too late.

"The next match," Hayate began, "is Rock Lee and Gaara -"

"I object!" Everyone stared around at me in surprise. Gaara looked furious, impatient, unstable. His jaw clenched.

"On what grounds?" Hayate asked after a moment.

I opened my mouth, and there was an extremely stupid pause as I realized I couldn't think of anything. Lee had beaten my teammate. He had gotten through the second test basically unharmed. I couldn't object, because Lee was just that good.

Hayate turned back to the match and stepped backward. "Begin!"

I stared miserably as Kakashi-sensei put a hand on my shoulder. "Sometimes, you just have to let the fights happen," he said quietly. "You can't protect everyone from everything all the time." Gai was down the balcony, cheering on his student.

I looked across the room to Temari and Kankurou. They were the only ones who seemed to understand. They shrugged apologetically.

* * *

The minute the match began, it looked bad. Lee kept attacking Gaara with taijutsu moves, but Gaara's sand always protected him, an impenetrable barrier. Gaara's sand reached out for Lee countless times, Gaara whispering madly that there wasn't enough blood yet, but Lee was fast and he kept dodging, kept the sand away from him - so at least that was something.

"Why doesn't he use ninjutsu?" I asked. "Or genjutsu?"

"Lee was malformed chakra coils," said Gai, and my eyes widened in surprise. "When I first saw him at the Academy, he was a poor, talentless orphan boy from no family who was about to get kicked out of the Academy. I saw something in him - a determination, a potential, despite how poorly he did. I took him in and trained him to be a taijutsu master." So that was why Lee admired Gai so much. "It's not that Lee won't perform spells," said Gai, "it's that he _can't." _Gai still seemed confident, though, thoughtful. This I couldn't understand at all.

I looked back around in worry at Lee. This just kept getting worse and worse. I was afraid even to cheer Lee on. If Gaara's sand kept protecting him, was Lee going to die without even _injuring_ Gaara?

Every time Gaara's sand went for Lee, I flinched in preparation for the infamous "rain of blood", but Lee always managed to get away in time. Far from being intimidated, he seemed puzzled, concentrating, as if trying to find something that would give him the upper hand.

"Lee," Gai called at last, "take them off!"

Lee paused, staring in disbelief - glee slowly filled his face - "Gai-sensei, I thought that was only allowed when protecting someone I cared about..."

"This time," said Gai, with a thumbs up, "I will allow it."

So Lee took some weights hidden underneath his pants off of his legs... and the crash when they hit the floor shook the whole room. "He had them _that _heavy...?" Kakashi muttered in good-natured exasperation. But there was no denying what worked. Lee was suddenly a whirlwind of movement, a mere blur, spinning all around Gaara and attacking him from every direction. The sand only just managed to get up to guard Gaara in time; it obviously wasn't done to Gaara's own will, because for the first time Gaara seemed alarmed, flinching back as Lee's foot was suddenly right behind him or in front of his face. Gaara didn't even seem to have the time to attack Lee.

I allowed myself a fleeting moment of hope. Lee still hadn't actually hurt Gaara yet, but maybe he still had a chance...

Then, it seemed, Lee _did _hurt Gaara. The sand guard didn't get up fast enough; Lee kicked Gaara across the head and then punched him so hard across the face that Gaara flew away, landing on his side. Gai cheered. I heard awed murmurs go up and down the Konoha line up. Lee landed smoothly on his feet, smirking. I chanced a glance across the way. Kankurou and Temari looked surprised, alarmed. I allowed myself a further moment of hope, my heart leaping...

And then Gaara stood, slowly. All the hope darkened to horror. There were cracks in Gaara's face. Not scars. Cracks.

His entire body had been covered in sand. At Lee's hit, the illusion fell, revealing a complete form of sand, fitting intimately to Gaara's own body. A kind of armor. Just like had been done with Kankurou's puppet. Lee hadn't hurt Gaara at all. He'd merely made cracks in the sand. Lee would have to hit Gaara again in exactly the same area even to leave a mark.

And it didn't appear that Gaara would let him. Because Gaara wasn't worried. Gaara wasn't hurt. He was grinning. A wide, demented, unhinged smile had formed across his features. A little, hysterical laugh sounded from him - high, cold, and devoid of any emotion.

Gaara wasn't a psychopath. He was a fucking lunatic.

The expression slowly retreated, back into its more normal emotionless counterpart, as the armor of sand reformed, the illusion was put back in place, and the rest of the sand retracted, floating around Gaara. I almost wondered if there was something about the sand's illusion - if it hid Gaara's actual reactions to things, kept him from showing any of what he was feeling. There was just something about how sudden the switch-up was when the sand formed back over his face...

I realized I was concentrating on the wrong things! Lee - was there anything he could do?

Lee thought there was. He tried a taijutsu move called the Secondary Lotus where he got over the sand barrier by flying in an arc over Gaara's sand. He kicked Gaara upward into the air, grabbed him by the waist, and shoved him headfirst back into the ground with an enormous crash, trying to crack the sand armor. Lee jumped backward. The armor was in ruins. Gaara's form was still, his eyes still open, the sand floating all around him.

"... Is he dead?" Shikamaru asked in morbid fascination after a moment.

But I already knew the answer. _The sand floating all around him. _"No," I whispered. "No, he's not. Lee! The sand! He's not dead!"

And then Gaara's still form relaxed, revealing itself to have been a Bunshin made of sand.

"When did he switch?" Gai asked, flabbergasted.

"Lee paused briefly during his attack from the strain it was causing his body," said Kakashi, who had been watching closely. "Gaara took that pause and used it to switch with a shell of himself made of sand."

"He did all that... created the shell, put the illusion over it, switched with it... and timed the exact right moment to do it all in... while Lee had him up in the air and was turning him around by the waist?" I asked slowly, disbelievingly, in dread.

There was no denying it. The way he'd snuck up on his siblings and my team on that first day, his easy success in the first two tests - they were no fluke. Even when you got past the sand, Gaara was really good.

The dread, the horror, the anticipation - it had returned.

If I were Lee, I'd already have leaped back and begun looking around for the real Gaara, but Gaara didn't try to sneak around or hide. He reappeared, in a flurry of sand, right behind Lee. A cruel sort of smirk had filled his face. He pushed Lee away with his sand - didn't go further, didn't try to crush him, but just _pushed._

"Oh, no," I heard one of his siblings say in dread.

Gaara was playing.

Lee didn't get up right away. He tried to stand, and then collapsed back down into a sitting position. "Why isn't he getting up?" I asked quickly, worried, leaning forward.

"Even the secondary lotus puts extreme strain on a body," said Gai and Kakashi together, and 'rivals' though they claimed they were, they were both so busy watching Lee that they didn't even seem to notice.

Gaara started doing what could politely be termed 'creative' things with his sand. He made tidal waves and arms, pushing an overtired and weakened Lee this way and that, slamming him against walls, beaming in a cruel, infantile kind of delight. Every time an arm of sand slammed into Lee, I had to bite back a scream; each time, I was wondering if now was going to be the time when Gaara made it rain blood. Finally, I realized I was shaking, sweating, and I thought that Gaara had to be leaking some kind of killing intent, that like with Zabuza, that had to be what was affecting my senses. I swallowed and tried to stop being so jumpy, clenching my sweaty palms.

But still, things didn't look good. Lee couldn't be fast or strong in taijutsu anymore; he could barely even stand. He couldn't use spells. I had a sudden, mad urge to jump in there and physically defend Lee from Gaara's assaults, but it was against the rules and anyway, what could I do? I could _try_ to weave a genjutsu to distract Gaara and help us get away. I could try to hit his sand with a fire spell, turn it all into shattered glass, but I wasn't sure if that would be a lot safer.

It helped me to imagine possible scenarios as I stood there, tensed, impotent.

After a while, Lee started crying out from Gaara's blows and I clenched my teeth. People started murmuring that Lee should surrender. But I knew. Lee wouldn't surrender. Lee was going to die.

But then something strange happened. Gai looked down at Lee - and he smiled, and nodded once. And everything about Lee just brightened.

And then all of a sudden, Lee's movements were back to normal. He was dodging Gaara's attacks again, no problem. "What's going on?" I asked.

"The lotus in Konoha blooms twice," Gai said simply.

"You didn't..." said Kakashi in dread.

"I did," Gai replied.

"But he's just a Genin!" Kakashi exclaimed, and for the first time he had straightened.

"What are you guys talking about?" asked Neji, speaking for the first time, and he sounded distinctly annoyed that he did not understand what was going on.

"Are you saying Lee has another lotus move?" I asked. "Besides the secondary lotus, I mean?"

"Correct. In the chakra circulatory system," said Kakashi, lifting his hitai-ate so he could look at Lee with his Sharingan eye, "there are eight gates, one in each part of the body. Chakra is centered in these areas. They control the chakra that flows through your body. The Lotus move unfastens these gates, and grants the user more than ten times their ordinary physical power. Secondary Lotus unlocks the first gate, and even this strains one's muscles greatly, taxing them to their limit. _Primary _Lotus opens the first gate, and then goes on to open the second, and then the third. And that is when the act is carried out."

"But if even secondary lotus leaves one unable to move..." My eyes widened. "Lee's going to kill himself trying to defeat Gaara." I looked back at the fight in horror.

"Not... necessarily," said Kakashi cautiously. "But opening all eight gates - that's a different story. A person is temporarily granted the power of a Kage, but at a terrible price. In that case, the user will definitely perish. Gai, is this really appropriate? I don't mean to pry into what that boy is to you, but -"

"Silence, Kakashi! Lee has something to protect!" Gai's face twisted.

"And what is that?" I asked with big eyes.

Gai looked down at me, and he softened. "Gaara is the natural genius," he said, "and Lee -"

"Is the one who came from nothing - the one with hard work," I echoed. And then I looked down at the fight, torn. I _would _think it was just a guy thing, but... when I had made the decision to enter the second test. Was I any better?

And then Lee began. A wall of liquid energy began moving around his form - he tensed, in position - his skin got redder and redder - his veins bulging -

"I don't know what you're trying to do," said Gaara, "but this is the end."

"_Yes," _I heard Lee's voice echo from inside the wall of energy, "_yes, either way, the next move will decide everything..."_

Blue chakra came out in a wide arc around Lee's form, a terrific chakra presence that made all the air in the room close up - He stood straight, and his eyes were bulging, everything about his body being taxed to its limit, chakra coming out in a physical, thick, visceral aura around him -

I was proud of him, in an odd way. What he was doing was completely idiotic, it was totally unattractive, but it was also so very _Lee._

And then Lee _moved._ There was a blur, followed by a sudden rumbling and a breaking up of the stone where Lee had tread. Then, faster than any sand, Gaara was kicked straight across the face and away. A burst of air flew out from the point of contact, and all of a sudden it was like standing in the middle of a hurricane; I clenched the railing as the wind buffeted us, pushing us around. I heard someone from Ino's team cry out, "_Shit!"_

Lee, quite honestly, pounded the crap out of Gaara. He pushed him every which way, beating him around, so fast the sand could never keep up. Gaara's sand armor was cracked, broken, flaked off, pushed every which way. It was all but ruined. Lee punched Gaara toward the ground...

And Gaara's gourd turned into sand and caught him.

Lee's power streak ended. He fell to the ground and rolled away, and was still.

Gaara was lying there amid his own sand, his armor cracked and ruined, but he was still unharmed. He put his hand out. Sand flew up and shaped to Gaara's will. Lee moved - amazingly, after everything he'd put himself through, Lee could still move. He began crawling away, limply, because that was really all he could do at this point, and the sand was coming after him - And now was the moment I'd been waiting for, the moment when it would happen -

I moved, reflexively, to put myself in between the two of them, and Kakashi caught my arm. "Not you," he said, holding me tightly, no matter how much I struggled. "Lee wouldn't want that." And at this, I paused.

Gaara's eyes caught me. He saw me, fully, for a moment, the way I wanted to jump in front of the attack - just like how I'd jumped in front of Kankurou to try to protect Konohamaru. There was a slight moment in which I looked back into those eyes, and I saw how Gaara must be feeling: stunned, panicked, angry, confused. And below the fear response, there was something in me that saw Gaara in that moment, for the first time, as almost human.

The sand stopped, shaking, for a split second, and that gave Lee enough time to crawl away. By the time Gaara had started and went back to having the sand snatch at Lee, all he could get was a leg. He closed the sand around it, and crushed it, and I put a horrified hand to my mouth as Lee screamed out. Lee finally faded over, passing out from the pain.

The sand went to crush Lee further, and Gai jumped out to save Lee, and that was when Kakashi let me go. Gai kicked all the sand away in a flurry, and I jumped in behind Gai, and I waited until all the sand had gone away and then I hurried over to Lee's still form, shaking. He was out like a light. His leg was ruined. He may never be a ninja again. And there was a split second when I really wanted to cry -

And then anger filled me, a terrible, burning kind of anger that knew no bounds. It made me crazy. That's the only explanation, the only thing I can think of, that made me do what I did next.

I turned to Gaara, livid. "You _hurt _my _boyfriend," _I hissed.

"Your boyfriend dared to test me," said Gaara viciously, from where he'd sat up. "Your boyfriend deserves to _die."_ His face twisted.

I made a hand seal, silent and invisible, with one hand behind my back. I made the illusion of myself, standing up and walking calmly, non-threateningly, toward Gaara. Gaara flinched back, the sand coming up as a shield, Hayate's eyes widened warningly -

I was walking, invisible, just behind the illusion of myself, but silently, unlike my illusion. "Relax, Gaara," I said, and I had my illusion self mouth the words, she smiling grimly. "I'm not going to hurt you."

My illusion self walked in fearlessly, right past all the sand. I heard several gasps from the balcony. But the sand did nothing. It sensed that there was nothing really there.

Gaara's eyes had widened in alarm, in confusion. My illusion self kneeled down in front of him, and smiled gently, and reached out a hand to touch his face. Gaara's breath caught. He stared at me, disbelieving, confused, but he did nothing. It was like he couldn't, like no one had ever treated him this way before, or at least not for a very long time.

The sand sagged down in response to his will.

I jumped in, and stood beside Gaara, while my illusion self was still knelt in front of him. I reached my hand out to fit inside her own, and I stroked his face. He felt the warmth, I felt the rough grains of sand against my hand. The sand broke and peeled away in response to my touch, Gaara still staring at me breathlessly, confused and disbelieving. And there it was, a smooth and unharmed cheek.

I reached my hand up exactly in tandem with my illusion's, and I slapped him hard right across the face.

Gaara's head flew off to the side, his cheek reddened, his eyes widened and then he moved a hand and the sand went up to crush - my illusion. I jumped back, dodging around the fearsome, shifting columns of sand and back behind the safety of Gai, a Jounin, just as the sand went through my sweetly smiling illusion self like water.

Everyone cried out in confusion, even Gaara paused -

"Was it a Bunshin?" someone asked.

"No, it couldn't have been, it hit him!" someone else said.

"She can't do the Kage Bunshin," said Kakashi, in a kind of dread,

Kurenai's voice rang out. "Gentlemen, really." She was almost smirking. "The girl's an _illusions _specialist."

I let the illusion fall. I was standing there calmly behind Gai, glaring at Gaara.

"... That gutsy little bitch," I heard Kankurou mutter into the silence, and he sounded both horrified and impressed.

Gaara began backing up, the sand shifting wildly all around him. "How -" he said, his very voice unstable and dangerous, "how did you do that?! Illusions - they can simulate sensation but they can't make a person move like that! How -?!"

I smirked, a slow and evil smirk. "That's what I'll leave you to figure out," I said sweetly. "Why reveal my secrets? I just figured someone should harm you over the course of this fight - you spoiled, psychopathic little boy."

I turned around smoothly and walked right back toward Lee. The entire time, though no one could tell, my breath was held and I was trying very hard not to react. I knew how dangerous it was, turning my back on an angry Gaara. Sure enough, there was a sound of shifting sand and then a set of footsteps as all the Jounin were there, guarding Lee and I from Gaara. I heard Hayate's voice ring out, and he was not coughing now. "Enough! This fight is over!"

The sand made a shadow over us, bigger and bigger...

"_ENOUGH!"_

That was the Hokage, and for a moment he sounded like his reputation - utterly terrifying.

The sand paused. Gaara seemed to get his head somewhat, because the shadow went away as the sand retracted. I realized I had stopped in my tracks, and I let out a breath of relief.

"... _Why?" _Gaara's voice came out then, emotional and confused. "_Why do you protect them? That little boy - that Uchiha boy - that weak girl - that strange looking taijutsu fighter - Why would you jump in front of them to protect them?"_

"Because I love them," I said, whirling back around, my voice ringing out. There was a moment of silence. "Because that's what I do," I said fiercely. "I love people. I protect them."

Gaara's eyes were wide; after a moment, his face twisted, all the childishness leaving them to reveal a deep, dark, edge-sharp pessimism. "_Liar_," he said quietly, and I realized I no longer understood what he meant.

That person I reminded him of: had they revealed themselves to be unloving? Had they pretended to protect people?

Then Gaara abruptly stood. His expression closed up, all the sand retreated back into his gourd, and he walked away. I turned away, too - this was over.

"Winner: Gaara."

I knelt down beside Lee, holding him and stroking his hair even as he struggled unconsciously, as if in his own mind he were still fighting and would always be inside that one great fight. I liked that idea. It helped me keep from tearing up.

The medics came and looked Lee over. One took Gai aside and began speaking. Gai looked horrified. He met my eyes - it was in that moment that I knew what I had already suspected. Lee's leg was ruined. He could no longer be a ninja.

A few tears did leak out, then, as I looked back down at Lee.

* * *

One more fight was after that. I don't remember much of it. Chouji, a big guy, did a spell and turned himself into something called a meat tank. He steamrolled over Kinuta Dosu, who despite some attempts at wind spells wasn't much use without his metal arm that Sasuke had broken. Chouji won easily.

But I could hardly pay attention. Sasuke and Naruto were in the hospital, Hinata was on life support, Lee was crippled.

Yes, in my mind, the preliminaries were already over.


	8. Chapter 8

8.

"This concludes the third test's preliminary matches," Hayate announced. "Those who will proceed on to the third test's final five matches are: Akadou Yoroi, Aburame Shino, Sabaku no Kankurou, Haruno Sakura, Sabaku no Temari, Nara Shikamaru, Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Neji, Sabaku no Gaara, and Akimichi Chouji. Everyone, please assemble on the main floor."

The only other girl besides me who would be fighting in the stadium was the cool, contemptuous, ever-confident, and older Temari. The Kazekage's own daughter. _That_ was intimidating.

We stood there in two lines before Hayate. "There is one absence," said Hayate. "That is Uzumaki Naruto, who is in medical treatment. Is there anyone who can explain the information presented here to him?"

I raised my hand. "He's my teammate, sir. And our Sensei is here, too."

Hayate nodded. "Very good. Now, all in all, there are seven from Konoha and three from Suna." He stepped aside, and the Hokage stepped forward.

"I will explain the main one-on-one matches taking place in the stadium," said the Hokage. "It will take the shape of a tournament - there will be five initial matches, followed by matches between the people who won those. From here on out, anyone who shows themselves well - whether they win or not - could make Chuunin. As said before, you will be showing off in front of everyone as a representative of your country's power, and also in front of the people who will be deciding whether or not you graduate in rank." I swallowed, and chanced a glance around me. Everyone else seemed either confident or uncaring. Only Chouji looked in any way as nervous as I was. "Therefore, to give the announcements time to be sent out and everyone time to assemble in the stadium, the main matches will begin in one month. This is also a time to prepare for you candidates."

"Can you just... say what you mean? Directly?" Kankurou finally asked, annoyed.

The Hokage frowned, and did not oblige him. "Get to know your enemy and yourself better," he said. "That is what this month is for. Analyze the information on your fellows gathered over these preliminary matches, and work hard and improve yourselves over this month. If you have revealed all your abilities already, it is recommended that you get some new abilities." And there was that dry sense of humor again.

We all picked pieces of paper out of a box that told what our initial matchups would be. They were:

_Uzumaki Naruto vs Hyuuga Neji_

_Temari vs Kankurou_

_Akadou Yoroi vs Akimichi Chouji_

_Nara Shikamaru vs Haruno Sakura_

_Gaara vs Aburame Shino_

It could have been worse. Shikamaru was tricky and he controlled the body instead of the mind, but he also controlled it from a place that was at least somewhat visible - the shadows. He was also a former classmate and a generally kind and somewhat lazy person; he had neither the active will nor the inclination to do the hard work of trying to kill me.

I had to admit, though, I envied Naruto his ability to potentially beat the crap out of Neji, no matter how much I intuitively understood that Neji's Byakugan would have been the worst possible matchup for my illusions. And Shino - Shino was clever and almost as emotionless as Gaara, but I did not envy Shino.

The Hokage told us the place in Konoha where the stadium was set - like I didn't already know, we only had one - and then he told us the exact date and time to meet there, on an afternoon precisely one month from today. It would be almost winter by then, so at least we wouldn't be fighting in the chill of the morning. Everyone should already be seated by the time we were allowed in to the stadium.

And then we were dismissed. Until then, we were free.

* * *

"Oh my God, Sakura! You're alive!" I re entered my childhood home to find my mother flinging her arms around me as soon as I walked in the door. She was usually a pretty reserved person, so I was surprised.

"Are you guys okay?" I asked, looking from one parent to the other.

Dad nearly laughed. "Are _you_?"

"Sakura, you've been gone for almost a week!" said my mother. "What on earth were you doing?"

"Passing tests. One was survival training, so that took a while. And then we had individual matches where we had to battle each other to see who would get the chance to rise in rank and who wouldn't," I said.

"And?" my father asked tentatively. "How did you do?"

"Well, the Exam's not over yet. The final matches will be in the big stadium a month from now," I felt a ping of nervousness just thinking about it, "and I'll be one of the contenders people will be judging for Chuunin selection. I'll be fighting others, and people will see whether we act like Chuunin or not... I guess," I said, thinking about it.

I had actually just gotten back from seeing Naruto released from the hospital with Kakashi-sensei. Sasuke was still in bed, but he was sitting up and could talk, so we all gathered around him. I tried to give my impatient teammates all the gory details they'd missed while they were out, but it's hard to properly intimidate someone unless they were actually there for the fight. Mostly, they'd just seemed wondrous and envious of me.

"That's incredible," said my mother, her eyes very round.

"How many other people will be fighting?" my father asked.

I was a little proud. "Nine," I said. "There were around two hundred people to start out with. So you'll get to see what abilities have helped me pass when others didn't!"

My parents were stunned for a moment. "That's... that's so good, honey..." My mother seemed worried, almost frightened.

Suddenly feeling the need to downplay my abilities, I looked down. "Well," I said, "it's just because I've been training so hard." Suddenly, I felt like the old Sakura again, the shy one who didn't think anything of herself, and I wasn't sure I liked that.

"It certainly sounds like it," said my father, his eyebrows rising.

"So you made it out okay?" My mother looked me over, rubbing my arm. "You look... relatively unharmed."

_Well, Mom, I was actually psychologically intimidated, trapped, strangled, grabbed by the throat, buried, beaten around, mind fucked, and tied up! Oh, and a homicidal maniac tried to kill me! Almost all my friends are in the hospital! It went great!_

"Yeah," I said aloud, "everything's fine."

* * *

"Remember, Naruto, Hinata really likes you," I said as we were walking down the hospital hallway together, armed with a teddy bear, flowers, and cards. "And she's probably not feeling too good about herself right now. So try to do something nice for her."

"Like what?" Naruto asked with all amount of innocence.

I sighed and stopped. "Look, Naruto - I saw the way you had your arm around her before the preliminaries. I've seen you flirting with her. Do you like Hinata?"

"Well -"

"Because if you've just been leading her on, you won't even have to worry about Neji. Because _I'm _going to kill you."

"I - I like her!" said Naruto quickly. "Or, at least - I think she's pretty and kind of sweet. With all that dark hair and that kind smile. I think I could learn to like her," he clarified.

I brightened, hopeful. "Great," I said. "Let's try to work with that."

I couldn't help Hinata get better at Jyuuken or get along with her relatives, but I could help her get the boy of her dreams. And Naruto was safe - he wasn't scary, like Kakashi-sensei had tried to imply. So I didn't feel guilty about it or anything.

We went through the door and into Hinata's room, and she looked up in surprise. Seeing Naruto, she looked down, twisting her hands in shame. "Oh," she said. "Hi, Naruto-kun."

Naruto seemed surprised and uncertain. He looked backward at me. I gave him an encouraging little push forward.

"Uh, hey, Hinata. Heard you fought really hard out there," said Naruto. _Yes! _I thought. _Brilliant, Naruto!_

"I..." Hinata was still looking down, fiddling with her hands. "I surrendered. My father won't even look at me." She sounded a bit choked up.

"Yeah, well I heard Neji was a giant asshole bully out there, so if your father's angry at _you _he has some serious issues," said Naruto, and Hinata looked up slightly.

I decided to add in my two cents worth. "You judged the situation and decided to get out of it because you couldn't win. That's actually really smart. It's what a ninja's supposed to do. Dying without meaning is _not _what a ninja is supposed to do. You have worth, Hinata," I added gently.

Hinata looked down, tears in her eyes again, but this time for a different reason.

"What? Why would you think you're not worth anything?" Naruto asked, caught off guard, leaning forward in that 'no personal space' way he had.

"I... I don't know. Everyone thinks so." Hinata looked up and shrugged, obviously trying not to cry. "My father. My clan. Everyone."

"But Ino and Sakura don't think that! And I don't think that!" said Naruto, frowning in worry.

"I... I would have thought you of all people..." Hinata's eyes widened. "I gave up!" she said, unusually loud. "I wanted to be strong, I wanted to be like you, but I gave up! I couldn't win! _You'd _have won. _You _wouldn't have given up." She seemed intensely miserable.

"Well - yeah, but I'm an idiot!" was the first, instinctive thing that flew out of Naruto's mouth. Then he turned around to me. "Don't tell Sasuke I admitted to that," he said.

"Duly noted," I said with a slight smile.

But it was enough - Hinata was laughing, smiling a watery kind of smile. Naruto looked over and smiled himself, he leaned forward, and then he kissed her.

There was a moment of silence. I looked away, uncomfortable, for a lot of reasons, and I decided to leave.

I waited outside in the hallway, shifting from foot to foot, for them to be finished. I could understand Naruto's appeal - he had this way of pulling people in and making them think anything was possible. I was happy for Hinata, though it felt a little odd to be handing Naruto over when I'd dated him myself.

Naruto came out at last, smiling a pained kind of smile. "I can't believe how horrible they are to her," he said.

"Neji was cruel, Naruto," I told him seriously. "He was a bully - mentally and physically. He's like the physical representation of what her entire clan thinks of her. Hinata _is _strong - she's just not a genius, like Neji, and she refuses to use all her power against her younger sister, because she doesn't want to hurt her. So everyone dismisses Hinata as weak, and then _Hinata_ thinks she's weak, and then she doesn't do as well - it's a sick cycle," I said, shrugging helplessly. "You have to defeat him, Naruto. You have to show Neji he's not perfect. Neji's living in this dream world where weak people are always weak and strong people are always strong and that's just the way it is. He thinks so black and white, and then he calls himself a philosopher. It's _wrong," _I reiterated.

"Yeah, I read his profile," said Naruto thoughtfully. "He's into meditation and spiritual tomes and freaky shit like that. He might be just the kind of person who thinks he's some kind of budding philosopher. I hate assholes like that." He scowled darkly. "And if that's what he did to Hinata... you'd better believe he'll be hearing about it from _me_." Naruto's tone was fierce.

After Naruto left, I went tentatively back into Hinata's hospital room. She looked down, and I looked down, as I sat on the edge of her bed. There was a long silence.

"Thank you, Sakura," said Hinata at last. And then: "I'm sorry." She looked genuinely embarrassed. "It looks like I doubted you for no reason."

"Don't worry about it, I was sending mixed messages," I said. "I wasn't perfect either. I think a part of me _was _interested in Naruto... but you deserve to be with him. He's yours."

Hinata looked up, a fragile figure in a hospital bed, and in a small, glowing way, she smiled.

* * *

I also tried to hook Ino up with Sasuke - despite my inner feelings about Sasuke. Sasuke obviously didn't like me, but he might like Ino. She might make him feel better about... everything. But Sasuke wasn't having any of it. He was sour, not in a mood to be pleased. And there was one very good reason for that.

"You're telling me I spent all that time getting beaten around in the Chuunin Exam, showing myself _weaker_ than everyone around me, and now I'm _still _not going to have any training?" Sasuke was tight, the words hissed, his eyes narrowed, furious.

"Sasuke, you had a bad matchup in the preliminaries and the only person in the second test who managed to 'beat you around' was an S class criminal. You're being overdramatic." I tried to say this in a reasonable, sympathetic tone, instead of an accusatory one. "You just have to wait until the Exam is over and then I'm sure Sensei will give you plenty of training."

"She's right," said Kakashi, who seemed uncomfortable. "I will. But right now, I have to focus on training Naruto and Sakura. Naruto will be fighting Hyuuga Neji right off the bat - Hyuuga Neji, who nearly killed one of Konoha's most excellent rookies, she an expert in close combat. I just can't put the time you need into you right now."

"So my team _is _holding me back," said Sasuke spitefully.

"Hey! Asshole! That's not true and you know it! We've been there for you plenty of times!" said Naruto angrily. I stared between Naruto and Sasuke, who were now glaring at each other.

"Sensei, I just awakened my Sharingan," said Sasuke, turning to him. "I don't have anyone else to turn to. How am I supposed to master it without your help?"

"I will help you with your Sharingan," said Kakashi firmly. "_After _the Chuunin Exam. And by the way, you could stand to show a little concern for your teammates, you know. People die in these tournaments." This last part was reproachful.

Sasuke looked down, resentful, struggling. "Sorry," he muttered after a moment. I almost felt bad for him. He took a deep breath and looked up at Naruto and me. "Good luck," he said, and he even sounded sincere. Then he left. I had the feeling hearing Sensei talk about our training would have been painful and bitter for him.

Kakashi turned to Naruto and me, where we were standing on our usual team meeting bridge over the river. "I hated doing that," admitted Kakashi. "But I know Sasuke will pick up on our training fast after the Exam is over. Give him a couple of months and he'll be much stronger than he was in the Academy. He's not called the genius of his graduating class for nothing. For now, let's talk about you two.

"First, you've improved a _lot _since coming onto my team. Naruto, you've mastered the basics and some basic chakra control, and you have the Kage Bunshin. Sakura, your improvement in taijutsu and as a genjutsu specialist has been incredible and will serve you well. Congratulations." We both beamed. "With that said, if you walk into that arena as you are now, you're both going to die." He let that sink in for a moment.

"So, Naruto, I'll be taking you out of the village to a personal training area of mine, a forest just north of here. There, we will work together one on one. I will teach you the water walking chakra control exercise I taught Sakura, because you still need to work on your chakra control, and I will also teach you some new spells from my arsenal. No affinities are required - I'm just going to teach you some basic spells from each element that anyone theoretically would be able to do. I'm not going to try to get you better at taijutsu than Neji in a month, because after seeing him fight, I don't think that's possible. Non-illusion-based spells are what you will need to use to defeat him, spells and a good deal of cunning."

"Sounds great!" said Naruto, grinning and rubbing his hands maniacally, and then he paused. His smile fading.

"What is it?" Kakashi asked.

"Two things," Naruto admitted, and suddenly he seemed shy, uncomfortable, almost nervous. He looked down, shifting his feet. "I... I've started to come into contact with the Kyuubi's power more recently... and I think I might be able to learn to control it."

Kakashi's eyes narrowed. "Explain," he ordered after a moment.

"It seems to come out whenever I get really angry, protective of other people, afraid they might die. But... thinking of those same people, and how much I care about them, also seems able to shut the flow of power off," said Naruto slowly. "And I just thought... exploring that more... might be really useful... if you'd be willing to help me. Just as a last resort thing, you know?" he added quickly when we looked surprised.

Kakashi thought hard, leaning against the railing. "So... it would start out as a thought exercise, then? We would have to do this _very _carefully..." We waited. "But perhaps it could be done..." Kakashi admitted at last, his eyes far away.

"And there's another thing," Naruto added quickly. "You said you knew my mother. Do you think... I could learn more about her... over this month?" The question came out as almost tentative.

"I could help with that," said Kakashi, more warmly. "I always liked your mother. You probably get your enormous chakra and stamina from her, as I said before. She always had enormous chakra, poor control. She was a powerful kunoichi. And... I must admit, she was also very like you. Mischievous, energetic, chatty, impulsive. She was... _interesting," _he said at last, "an anomaly in the world of the ninja. But that could sometimes work in her favor... Yes," he decided at last. "I will tell you about her."

And that was all great, but - "Sensei, what about me?" I said at last.

"I've found another Jounin to train you," said Kakashi, smirking. "I talked to Kurenai, and she's a bit more lax now that Shino is getting a chance for promotion and is training with his clan. She has agreed to train you in genjutsu."

My eyes widened, excitement breaking out over my face.

* * *

Kakashi told me Kurenai and I would be staying in the village to train over the next month, just in case Shino needed something from Kurenai during that time. So the next afternoon, I met her at a certain training ground on the edge of the village. It was early afternoon. For a refreshing change from Kakashi-sensei, Kurenai-sensei was already waiting for me when I arrived.

"I wondered if you'd picked up on some of Kakashi's bad habits," said Kurenai wryly. "So you _are_ on time."

"Yes, ma'am." I stood straight, at attention. "I... I've always wanted to be trained by a powerful kunoichi, and I just wanted to say I'm going to try really hard at everything you have to teach me!" I squeezed my eyes shut and bowed, nervous.

Kurenai looked surprised, when I finally glanced up. "I can appreciate the enthusiasm," she admitted at last. "I've taught at the Academy and have personally trained more than one girl, and I try to mentor young kunoichi whenever I can. There aren't as many of us in the forces. We should stick together."

"Exactly. Like me and my friends." I smiled.

"I heard you made up with Hinata," said Kurenai then, and I must have looked embarrassed because she added, "I'm not going to pry. But I'm glad that you did. Hinata's self confidence during missions went down a lot while you guys were fighting. I think your and Ino's friendship really helps Hinata's performance.

"Now, as for what we're going to be working on together, obviously our focus will be on illusions. Genjutsu requires mental acuity and great chakra control, both of which you seem to have in spades. This is good. Kakashi's already given you a foothold in illusions. Can you tell me about the types of things you learned from him?"

"I can hide really well, make things invisible and hard to notice, disguise reality with another vision, things like that. Kakashi-sensei really helped me with the macabre: painful feelings, nasty sensory attacks, morbid and horrifying images -"

"That sounds like Kakashi," said Kurenai dryly.

"One genjutsu he taught me takes an attack on the user and crafts an illusion where the victim of the genjutsu is under the illusion that they're feeling the same thing they just did to the other person. Kakashi-sensei also started me on the basics of layered illusions. I actually really want to work on those more. I want to focus on more complex layers, being able to hold them for longer periods of time, stuff like that."

"But what I'm really interested in," began Kurenai, "is what you did to that Gaara boy."

"That?" I said in surprise. "Oh, that was just an idea. I hid what I was really doing with an illusion of what I appeared to be doing. My illusory self was in front of him and my real self was invisible, standing at him from another angle. I mimicked the attack that my illusion self was doing so that I really hit him. But that way, the sand would go for my illusion self, not for my real self."

"Clever," said Kurenai, "and we'll be expanding on that more. Imagine the applications," she said at my surprised stare. "The best ideas for illusions come from our own heads. If you could make yourself invisible even as you had an illusion self fighting the enemy, that would be incredibly confusing. You could hit them from different angles and they would never know where you were, because they were so busy fighting the vision of you instead of the real, invisible you. Of course, if they were smart, they would know pretty quickly that they were in an illusion and would try to break out of it, but that's where the layers come in. Do what you did with that Ino girl. Give it layers. Make them panic and think they can never break out of the illusion. That's how you destabilize and beat an opponent."

"Fighting like that would also require very good hand to hand and elemental spell techniques," I said curiously.

"Yes. We'll have to work on your taijutsu, and also expand your arsenal of elemental spells. What's your element?" asked Kurenai.

"Fire," I replied readily.

"It's good that you already know that," Kurenai complimented me. "We'll have to expand your arsenal of fire spells. As a Jounin, I have access to high class archives that you don't. I'll find you two good, new fire spells to go with your first one, and have you practice them from the scrolls in your own time."

Kurenai eventually added her own techniques as well, upon further assessment of my abilities: She taught me how to further disguise myself, chameleon-like, blending in with whatever was around or behind me. She taught me how to give someone the illusion that they were bound, even when they weren't. And she helped me master showing a genjutsu to more than one opponent, which I already seemed to have a good handle on, by making Kage Bunshin and then bravely letting me put them underneath illusions. ("Ugh," she said, shaking her head at the end of one such training session. "We get all the memories back from our Kage Bunshin. What you just did - that was impressively nasty.")

A lot of this stuff, I had the beginnings of already - it was just an improvement on what I'd already been doing - but it was still incredibly intensive training. Over the course of this month: I. Passed Out. A _Lot._ Kurenai would always wake me back up, give me a power snack, and then send me back out to train. She wouldn't let me leave for the day unless and until I passed out again.

At the same time, she wasn't a cruel teacher. She was as Hinata had described her: sensible, reasonable, and fair. She was also incredibly clever - she knew her craft, was comfortable with it, and had excellent reaction times. It was easy to see, without even seeing her fight, just why she had been made a Jounin.

I never felt well rested, but I could tell I was learning a lot. Hopefully, all the tricks I had up my sleeve could make me trickier than Nara Shikamaru.

* * *

Yakushi Kabuto, of all people, approached me while I was out jogging one morning. He ran up beside me. "Hey, Sakura," he said. "I wondered if I'd be seeing people from the Exam around."

"Hello, Kabuto-san," I said in surprise. Then, almost reproachfully, "I'm in the final tournament for the Exam. You really should have tried, you know. It was... amazing," I finally settled on, somewhat uncomfortably.

"Nah, I think it was better off without me there," said Kabuto bashfully, cheerful. "You seem pretty powerful, Sakura. Don't you ever feel... I don't know, like you want to do more with your abilities? Like Konoha isn't giving you enough?"

I thought about it. "No," I said simply.

Kabuto nearly stopped running, he was so surprised. "Really?" he said after a moment.

I shrugged and nodded. "I'm happy just to be progressing. I'm loyal to my village. Whatever they need me to do, I'm ready. As long as I have the power to protect the people I care about, it doesn't matter to me whether or not I actually have to use it."

"Huh. That's an... interesting philosophy," said Kabuto at last.

I laughed. "Interesting in what way?"

"Oh, I just wasn't expecting it," Kabuto admitted, smiling. Then he veered off to jog in a different direction. "I have to go."

"Go where?" I said, surprised by the suddenness.

"I have to go tell someone that someone's inappropriate for something!" Kabuto called, confusingly, and then he disappeared off into the forest on the other side of the river.

That guy was weird. Big time.

* * *

"Sakura."

I looked up in surprise. I had just left my house to go to training and was standing on the outside doorstep. Sasuke was there, waiting for me.

"What is it?" I asked him, frowning. "Is something wrong?"

He looked around and then waved me closer. I approached, and got a jumpy little butterfly feeling in the pit of my stomach when he put his lips close to my ear. But his words made my blood run cold.

"The examiner, Hayate, turned up dead somewhere in Konoha this morning."

I looked at him, stepping backward so I could see his face, alarmed. "How do you know something like that?" I asked him.

"I'm from a clan. We hear about these sorts of things," said Sasuke. "Look, no one said anything, but I could tell they thought Orochimaru was behind it. Who else would it be?"

"Are we sure he didn't just... die?" I asked delicately. "I mean, he did seem pretty sick..."

"Sakura, he was cut open." My eyes widened. "And Gekkou Hayate may have been sick, but he was still a master swordsman, one of Konoha's youngest Jounin to appear in the last five years." Sasuke's face was deadly serious. "Whoever this Orochimaru is, he's powerful. He must have all sorts of people on the inside. So be careful when meeting new ninja, okay?"

"Sure, definitely," I said, worried. Then, gently, "How have you been?"

Sasuke looked away, shifting. "Restless," he admitted, frowning. "I've been trying to work more with my new Sharingan, but it's slow going."

"I don't suppose it would help you to know my training's going well," I said sadly.

He gave a grim little smile, not looking at me. "No," he said. "It wouldn't, really."

"Just as soon as this Exam's over," I assured him, "all the focus will be on you. We'll go on new missions and you'll get lots of training. It'll be great."

Sasuke looked down, nodding. He still wouldn't look at me.

Sasuke went to leave and as he did so, I thought I spotted a shadow out of the corner of my eye. I gasped and looked around, but there was no one on the rooftop behind me.

Sasuke gave me an odd look. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said, shaking my head at myself. What was wrong with me? "I'm fine..."

That had been happening a lot lately. I kept getting that same jumpy feeling I had before the first test, the odd sensation that someone was watching me. And I kept finding dirt in odd places on my body - although it was a strange, grainy kind of dirt, not like anything I'd ever felt before. It made my clothes very itchy. I was sure the two things were unrelated - the training field Kurenai and I used must be using a special kind of dirt; the feeling someone was watching me could be attributed to stretched nerves from intensive genjutsu training - but still, it was all very... odd.

* * *

My first visit to Lee's hospital room was hard.

I came in to find him trying to do pushups on his bed despite having a bad leg. "Lee!" said the nurse who came in with me, scandalized. She turned to me, almost pleading. "He just won't quit," she said. "He needs _rest_."

"Lee -" I went over to put a hand on his shoulder -

He ignored me. "Three hundred and one," down, "three hundred and two," down, "three hundred and three," down. Then he shook a little, tried to put the weight on his bad leg, cried out, and fell face-first onto the bed.

"Lee!"

He just lay there for a moment. I saw his hands clench the blankets, I saw his shoulders shake.

Gaara, I thought. That horrible boy. _He _had done this.

I gave the nurse a certain look and she left the room quietly and tactfully. I sat down beside Lee on the bed and stroked his hair.

"... I'm _pathetic," _I could hear him say shakingly after a moment. "All I can do now is evoke _pity_."

"That's not true. Lee, I still care about you," I said.

Lee sat up straight and laughed, humorlessly, harshly. There were unshed tears in his eyes. It was awful to see. "But you don't want to be with me anymore," he guessed. "As you shouldn't."

I was almost angry. "Why, just because you're crippled?! Because you don't have good prospects anymore?! That's not a good reason to break up with someone at all! Lee, I'm willing to stand alongside you, no matter what happens." That was how it always went in the books, how I always, in my romantic vision of the world, thought it should be done. I could take care of Lee, I thought naively. Naively, I thought he'd let me.

"That's really sweet of you, Sakura," said Lee, smiling sadly. "But I don't want you to be stuck with someone just because you feel like you shouldn't break up with them -"

"Lee -!"

"So I'll make things easier on you, and break up with you. Okay?" He was almost gentle as he said it, oddly understanding, as if he saw things I couldn't possibly see.

I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. "... What?"

"I don't want you to have to stand this shame along with me," said Lee quietly, looking away.

"But there's nothing shameful about it -! Lee. Do you _want _to break up with me?" I was hurt. My cheeks were hot and I could tell that at the worst possible moment, my eyes had filled with tears.

Lee still wasn't looking at me. "No," he admitted. "But I'm going to, because I just - I think it would be better for both of us."

I took a deep breath and stood, trying not to cry. "_That," _I said viciously, "is the _stupidest _thing I have _ever _heard." I saw Lee flinch, from where his back was turned to me. I stalked to the door and then turned around. "You're wrong, Lee," I said. "It is not _me _who can't stand the shame. It's _you_!"

My voice caught at the last moment. I took a deep, gasping breath before slamming the door shut behind me and running away in tears.

* * *

I came home crying and the first thing my Mom did was take me by the shoulders. "Oh, honey," she said, leaning down to my level, "what's wrong?"

The last thing I wanted was to talk to anyone, I was so upset, so I wiped my face and looked away, sniffing. "Nothing."

"Uh-huh," said my Mom skeptically. "Okay, sit down at the counter, young lady. It's tea time." That was our old ritual - whenever I got really upset, we'd sit down in the kitchen together, she'd make tea, and we'd talk it out. The last time we'd done that had been when I wasn't talking to Hinata.

I sat slowly down in the kitchen, watching my mother bustle around, making tea. "Lee broke up with me," I said, looking down. "He broke up with me because he said I shouldn't have to date a crippled person."

My Mom looked around, torn. ".. Well, I wondered if it would be something like that. All this ninja stuff, I just - I sometimes think it's too much for teenagers to really handle. When I think of that poor boy..."

"I told him he was an idiot," I muttered, looking down.

My Mom, strangely, fought back a smile. She came and sat down across from me. "That sounds like something you would do," she admitted. "But can you try to understand where he's coming from? It sounds like this Lee boy's whole lifestyle was just cut away from him. He's going to have to re evaluate a lot of things, and maybe he just... can't deal with being with someone right now. I don't think that has anything to do with you."

"I know, I just -" I took a deep, catching breath. "I just wish he'd let me help him. Mom, why won't he let me help him?"

"Because he's a boy," said my mother evenly. "And he's proud. And scared. They all are, you know. But just because you're not together, for now, that doesn't mean you can't be there for him."

"But Mom, if he won't let me be with him during the bad times... I mean, what kind of relationship is that?" I asked, almost frustrated, looking upward.

My Mom was quiet for a moment. "Just try to be a little understanding of him," she said at last. "And enjoy being single for a little while. You can figure out all the other stuff later."

"... That's a little more profound than what Ino would have given me," I admitted, smiling. "I'm going to call her later and she's just going to go, '_That jackass!'"_

We laughed, softly.


	9. Chapter 9

9.

My talk with my mother had cooled me down. So on the afternoon of the next day, I went back to the hospital to see if I could talk to Lee again, maybe in a calmer frame of mind. When I entered the hospital, the front desk was... oddly empty. There was an "out to lunch" sign on top of it. So I went past the "out to lunch" sign to wander along cold, empty hallways toward the place where I _thought _Lee's room was. Everything was so deserted... it was kind of eerie...

Then, suddenly, someone walked out of a nearby room. I almost ran into them - they paused and looked around. It was Nara Shikamaru.

Despite the fact that he was my future opponent, I gasped and nearly laughed in relief. "Thank goodness!" I said. "You're the first person I've seen here! That was getting creepy!"

Shikamaru smiled wryly. "I see you're not into the whole rivalry thing. Good," he admitted. "It's exhausting."

"What were you doing in here?" I asked.

"Visiting Chouji." Shikamaru shrugged. "He ate so much barbecue he made himself sick in preparation for all the fighting tomorrow."

"Will he be okay in time for the fighting?" I asked in alarm.

"Yeah." Shikamaru seemed more amused than anything. "He was just being dumb. What were you doing here?"

"Visiting Lee," I said. "His room should be just down the hall from here..." I began to point, and then paused, frowning. "Huh. That's weird. His door is already open. Did someone else come to visit him...?"

We walked curiously down the hall toward Lee's room, and when I stopped in the doorway horror filled my heart. Gaara was in there. He was standing over Lee's bed, and his hand was reached out; sand was wrapping itself around Lee's sleeping form in preparation for a sand coffin...

I did the stupidest thing I could have, under the circumstances. "_Stop!" _I screamed.

Gaara whirled around, and I saw too late how broken his eyes were: wide and bloodshot, raving insane, the burst blood vessels making the dark shadows of sleeplessness around them seem starker. Then, before I could even react, sand had slammed into me and in a moment of pain I had my back up against the wall. I squirmed, and the sand around me tightened and hardened. I couldn't even move my hands from my sides. Gaara was walking toward me, slowly. My eyes squeezed shut and I was waiting for the moment of my death...

But nothing happened.

My eyes popped open in surprise. Shikamaru had caught Gaara's shadow with his own and Gaara had stopped, shuddering to a halt. "Let her go!" Shikamaru shouted, his face hard, and for the first time I saw him as a ninja and not just that lazy boy who had liked to complain at the Academy. "Or I'll make you rip off that sand armor and run your head into that wall!" Shikamaru was standing by the doorway, so if he turned around and Gaara turned to the wall, he'd be safe.

Gaara's face had fallen back into that perfect, robotic expressionlessness. He looked around at me for a moment, intently, and then the sand eased and retracted. I slumped against the wall, my feet hitting the floor again.

"... _You_," he said at last. "Why are you always _there_?" His face had twisted.

"Trust me, I've been asking myself the same question. _For some reason_, you and your teammates keep running into me and my friends. And it couldn't be some evidence of innate aggression on your part - oh no, not from you." My voice was calm, but heavily sarcastic. I saw Shikamaru's lips twitch, even as he was looking between us worriedly.

Gaara was still watching me. "You see me as inherently aggressive."

"You have a fascination with killing people." I tried to match his crippling bluntness, but couldn't quite manage it.

A smile formed around Gaara's mouth, but his eyes were still completely blank: hard, jaded, and vicious. "I do," he admitted softly.

The honesty shouldn't have surprised me, but it did. "... _Why_?" I asked at last. Gaara gave no response, and suddenly I was angry. "Why?!" I shouted. "You've ruined Lee's career! And for your information, you've also ruined a perfectly good relationship we had going between us! And yet you still feel the need to kill him?! What the hell - what would possess you to do something like that?!"

"Sakura," said Shikamaru tightly, distinctly nervous, "be _careful."_

I quietened, breathing hard, glaring at Sabaku no Gaara. "I'm waiting for an answer."

"... And why... should I grace you with an answer?" Gaara asked, his eyes narrowed.

I thought hard for a moment. "Because I answered your question," I said at last, and his eyes widened. I was referring to that moment after his preliminary match, when he'd asked me why I would stand between him and the people I cared about. I'd told him it because I loved them.

Gaara's face twisted. But he gave me my answer.

"_I took the life of the woman who was called my mother when I was born. To create the ultimate ninja weapon, at birth my father sealed an incarnate of sand into me. It is called the Shukaku, and it was previously sealed inside a tea kettle. People say its soul was originally an elder priest from Suna, one who went insane. The spirit was called a demon, and it killed many people. We were bound together. From birth, I was a monster. I stole my mother's life and was created to become Suna's masterpiece, an exemplar of ninja strength. _

"_As the Kazekage's son, I was trained from the earliest age in ninja techniques. I was sheltered, kept from others, overprotected, spoiled - and I was always alone. For a while, I thought that was love. Until that incident happened..._

"_Starting when I was six, my father began to try numerous attempts at assassinating me. A being that is too strong eventually becomes the embodiment of fear. Because I had been manipulated by chakra from birth, my mind was unstable. The idiots of my village finally noticed that my emotions could become wildly unpredictable. I was the village's trump card... but then I also became a threat. And so my father decided to try to dispose of me. He thought I was too dangerous to remain - the village's dangerous weapon, handled with care. I am a relic from the past that everyone wants to be rid of. The would-be assassins would have listened to him anyway. Kage are seen in Suna as a kind of God. All my life, I've had to kneel before my father and speak to him from behind a kind of screen. Everyone listens to the Kazekage, and the Kazekage feels I was a mistake, that I am too dangerous to keep around._

"_So what reason do I have to live? I asked myself this question, and could not find an answer. But I needed a reason while I was still alive - or else it would be the same as if I was dead. So this is what I concluded: I exist to kill everyone other than me. I finally found relief inside the fear of being assassinated at any time. By killing my assassins, I was able to recognize my reason to live. Now, I fight only for myself and love only myself. As long as I believe that everyone else exists only to affirm my reason to live, everything is wonderful. As long as there are people in this world to affirm my reason for existing, I will remain. When I fight, when I kill, I feel things."_

Shikamaru looked horrified and thunderstruck, as if he didn't know what to say. And I... I had a lot of things to say. Didn't know if I should say some of them.

"You took the life of your mother," I chanced at last. "You say it like it was voluntary. Like you had a choice."

"My life ended my mother's," said Gaara.

"But... but I don't understand. Plenty of mothers die in childbirth. That doesn't mean their children killed them... And then you say you were kept spoiled and alone. So you got upset, and you hurt people. You threw tantrums. That's what a spoiled, lonely child would _do. _Only... you had your sand to do it with. And your father is a horrible person, and he tried to kill you for it, because for some reason he hadn't prepared himself for the eventuality of you being a human being with emotions. What I'm saying," for Gaara's eyes had narrowed dangerously, "is that you keep talking like there's no way around you being the way you are. But I just don't see it like that at all. You say you can't feel things. I don't think that's because you're inhuman. I think you're just upset, and you're hurting other people for it. And... and I realize that's an oversimplification... but..." I struggled with what I wanted to say. What did one say about something so horrible? "But I don't think there's any excuse, for the things you do," I said at last, firmly. "I think you could be better, if you wanted to be."

"Sakura," said Shikamaru, for Gaara was looking more and more unstable as I spoke, his eyes maddening, his face working, this terrible kind of confusion in his eyes. "Sakura, I think some people are just born into circumstances they can't work their way out of. If we could all just move on from this topic of conversation..." Shikamaru looked like he deeply regretted ever visiting the hospital at all.

"I keep telling you," said Gaara, his breathing haggard, "I was born a monster. I was _born _evil."

But I knew Naruto, and I knew that being born a demon container did not make one inherently unstable or insane. "I'm sorry," I said, meeting his eyes, where this horrific kind of darkness was swirling, "but I don't believe that."

Demons. It all came back to demons. They had ruined both my relationships so far, not because they was anything inherently wrong with the people who held them, but because of how those people were treated. And that... that was awful. It was terrible. It was _wrong._

"What you went through is terrible," I said, "but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you kill my... my ex boyfriend." I walked around Gaara so I was standing closer to Lee, glaring at him firmly. Putting one hand behind my back in preparation for a seal. "So you can just clear out right now."

Gaara had looked around at me, and his face formed into a cruel, bitter sort of smile. "Or _maybe_," he said, "I'll just reaffirm my existence right here, by killing _both _of you."

Too late, I realized a tendril of sand had snuck around me from behind and was shooting toward me and Lee! I jumped and in my panic, I activated the genjutsu from behind my back, the genjutsu I hadn't even really meant to use.

A shriek issued from Gaara, high and confused and terrified, as he was suddenly hit with a crippling full-body pain, a pain that was illusory, a pain his sand couldn't protect him against. Shikamaru had started moving to make Gaara hurt himself but he paused, stunned, as Gaara screamed and hunched over.

Then the shadow spell abruptly evaporated.

"Damn," Shikamaru said sharply, "the spell time is up -!"

But just at that same moment, I had looked down to brush at my hand and I had paused in shock, my own genjutsu evaporating because I hadn't had the willpower to keep it up. That itching feeling had hit me again. And I'd gone to brush at my hand, and I'd realized. That grainy itching I'd been feeling? It was sand. Sand particles had stuck to me. I suddenly flashed back to that moment before the first test when I'd thought someone was behind me, and I'd looked around and there was no one there, only sand swirling down from the light of the street lamps...

There was only one person that could have come from.

Sabaku no Gaara had been following me the entire time.

I was terrified and furious. I looked up, and Gaara had just stood, and I ran forward and shoved into him, slamming him against the wall, grabbing his shirt, getting right up into his face. "_You've been following me?! _What kind of game are you playing at?!"

"And how would you know something like that -?" His face had twisted in contemptuous amusement.

"I keep finding particles of your sand stuck to my skin," I said in a hard voice.

Gaara's eyes widened in genuine surprise, as if he had not expected this, and then his face fell into expressionlessness.

I caught my breath, glaring with all my might, attempting to be brave. He was _very _close to my face. "Why," I asked quietly, afraid, "have you been following me? Why are you always watching me? What _is it _about me that is so fascinating to you?"

There was a pause. "... I don't know," Gaara said at last, and for a moment he looked vulnerable. Then the hardness came back. "To all appearances, you're just some _girl._ Brave and extremely stupid. Compulsively caring, failing to grasp the meaninglessness of connections to others in life. Constantly doing irrational things. And yet you are strong. You are strong, and you do not want to kill people." Gaara frowned. "I don't understand this," he said at last, in a highly displeased way that demanded an answer. Not that I was going to give it.

It all made sense to me, except for one part. "No one's ever accused me of being stupid before," I admitted. "I read too much."

"No one's ever accused you of being stupid before?" Gaara repeated. "So... you _don't _make a habit of running into other people's traps?"

And I realized too late that there was sand all around us. Floating around below my hands where they'd caught his shirt. Underneath my hands, in the hardened shell he constantly kept around his body. Above us. Behind me. In a thick blanket. Everywhere.

Gaara smirked, and there was a viciousness to his eyes that said victory.

Shikamaru had backed up, all the blood leaving his face, watching as the shadow of sand rising above and around me just kept getting bigger and bigger. "_Shit, _Sakura," he whispered after a moment.

I gasped and went reflexively for a hand seal, and he grabbed my hands, clenching them tight enough, painfully, that they couldn't move and forcing them apart. I went to kick him and sand came up almost carelessly to block me. Gaara got very close up into my face, and Kiba and Akamaru had been right. He _did _smell like blood. It permeated his clothes, the blood red of his messy hair, everything. And in that frightened moment, it did seem as if he'd just been created that way - as if he'd always been a demon.

Gaara gave one of his eeriest and most unhinged smiles, the robotic face falling away to reveal the insanity within. I looked into those eyes, those sleep deprived, blood shot, darkened eyes, and Gaara gave one of his high little laughs. "I could kill you right now," he said, "and it would be beautiful. It would be _perfect."_

The door slammed open. "What's going on in here -?!" Gai's voice, hard and unyielding. Gaara paused, though he didn't let me go. "Let go of her!" I heard Gai call. "The tournament starts tomorrow!"

Gaara let go of my hands. He slowly reached up, and fitted his hands around my throat. "Blood would go _everywhere_," he whispered. "And I would feel _everything_. It would be us, together. It would be beautiful."

I didn't think I'd ever met such a deeply disturbed human being in my entire life.

I looked into his eyes and my breath caught. "You're not going to kill me," I whispered back in realization. Because I saw it, suddenly, in his eyes, and I just... knew.

Gaara's face twisted. "Are you _sure_?"

I looked closely, just to check. I leaned even closer, and he let me. "Positive," I said softly.

He looked at me as he'd looked at me when I'd touched his face: confused and breathless.

Gai's voice broke the moment, deep but also uncertain. "Let her go!" he said again. "Or I will attack!"

Gaara looked disgusted, contemptuous. "More protection," he muttered, and then he let go of my neck.

I shouldn't have said it. I really shouldn't have said it. "That's what we do when we don't hurt people. We love them."

Gaara paused, and then he clutched his head, as if it physically hurt him. "I can't love anyone," he said, his face working. "Not again."

The person I'd reminded him of. The liar.

I almost called to ask him about it, but he'd already turned around. He slunk resentfully out of the room, his blood scented sand trailing behind him, and he was gone.

"Haruno Sakura, that is the stupidest thing I have ever seen anyone do," said Shikamaru fervently a few moments after Gaara had left.

"I..." I realized I was shaking and sat down, breathing hard. All at once, what I had just done hit me. "I don't know what possessed me. I don't know what came over me. Why the - why the _hell _would I -?"

"That's what I'd like to know," said Shikamaru fervently.

"I think you are fascinated by him," said Gai, frowning. I looked up in surprise and alarm, because that was what Gaara was by me: fascinated. "And I think that is very dangerous," said Gai warningly.

"I know. I _know_ he is. Logically. I just... I never feel like he's going to hurt me." I couldn't explain it any better than that. I was strangely helpless.

Shikamaru and Gai obviously thought I was certifiably, pitiably insane. They clearly had no idea what I meant.

* * *

Shikamaru and I parted ways just outside the hospital.

"Thank you, Shikamaru," I said sincerely. "I know I was pretty worrying back there. But still... you tried to save me."

"Well - well, of course I did," said Shikamaru in exasperation. "We're comrades. It's not like I hate you just because we'll be fighting, or anything."

"Good," I said, "because I... don't hate you too." I smiled.

"Now that we've established that," said Shikamaru dryly. "Geez, it's going to be troublesome fighting you, though," he sighed, complaining to the last. "You're way too unpredictable for me."

As he left me there, I wasn't sure whether it was a compliment or an insult.

* * *

I had a training session with Kurenai after that, as absurd as that sounds. We were about halfway through it when she stopped me.

"Okay," she said. "You're about as prepared as you're going to get for tomorrow. Do you want to stop and tell me what's going on?"

I paused, shamefaced. "Was it that obvious I was distracted?"

"Sakura... you just trailed off halfway through a chameleon spell and turned your foot into a duck. Usually, that takes actual talent," said Kurenai.

I sighed and sat down against the nearest tree, the one I'd been supposed to be blending in with. "I just... Kurenai-sensei, why do I have such horrible luck with guys?"

With Kakashi, the question would have been awkward. But Kurenai was so much like a big sister that she just sighed and sat down next to me and said, "I've been waiting for something like this with one of my girls. What's wrong?"

"The first boy I had a crush on sees me as platonically as if I were actually his sister. People kept me apart from my first boyfriend and then he told me I just hadn't been trying hard enough to get past them. My second boyfriend broke up with me after he became crippled, because he was too busy trying to be the tough guy. And the only guy I really feel like I have any sort of meaningful connection with is homicidal. Kurenai-sensei, _why does this keep happening to me?"_

"Why don't you say it a little louder?" Kurenai suggested. I stared at her. "No, seriously," she said, standing, her face all business. "Stand up. Say it."

I took a deep breath and echoed into the clearing: "Why does this keep happening to me?!"

"Louder!"

"WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO ME?!"

"I can't hear you!"

I took a huge breath. "_WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO ME, DAMNIT?!" _I stomped my foot and punched the air.

"There now. Feel better?"

I paused. "Yeah," I realized, brightening. "I actually kind of do."

Kurenai nodded. "The first stepping in getting through emotion is to acknowledge it in the first place. You're angry. So be angry. Don't go around screaming all the time, but channel it. Use it. Channel it into your fights. You see?

"Now, come on. I say on this last night, we have a girl's night."

* * *

So we both went back to Kurenai's place, which was peaceful and set a ways back into the trees. We got into our favorite sets of pajamas, and we had a sleepover. We brushed each other's hair, and we just... talked. It was so freeing.

"What do you like in guys?" Kurenai asked me.

I sat back in thought. "I like... I have a thing for poise and power. I've got to admit. Men become more attractive when they're powerful. But other than that, I guess I've never really thought about it. I tend to go for more reserved men - boys that hint at something more without actually... saying it outright."

"Oh, no, you like the difficult ones," said Kurenai, smirking.

"What about you, then, what do you like?" I asked, teasing.

"Oh, the devil may care..." Kurenai looked off into the distance and sighed.

"Thinking of someone in particular?" I asked, smirking myself.

Kurenai sat up straight and said too fast, "No!"

I laughed and at last she smiled. "I really like the Ino-Shika-Chou trio's sensei," she admitted. "The Hokage's son. Asuma."

I thought about it. "I've never really met him," I realized, frowning.

"And you?" she asked.

"Well, I've had boyfriends, and I've loved them. But, it's strange... I don't think I've ever actually been _in love _with any of them. Does that mean there's something wrong with me?" I looked down at my hands in my lap.

"No," Kurenai said firmly. "That's normal, at your age."

I felt a bit of relief and looked up again. "The only boy I've ever thought I _might_ be in love with is Uchiha Sasuke. But that's not something I really like to talk about. He's not interested in me and he's pretty far out of my league." Just talking about it was depressing. "I... I'm scared, Kurenai-sensei. I've spent all my life thinking of myself as plain and unattractive, and I'm just afraid that I'll never be 'that girl'. That I'll spend my entire life without ever getting to be the main character in my own love story."

"Well, don't we all worry about that," Kurenai sighed. "I guess the only thing I can tell you is to just wait for it. It will come. And you're not plain. You're a lovely girl. Or do you think it's normal to have had two boyfriends before your thirteenth birthday?"

I smiled a little, still looking down. "No," I admitted. "I guess it's not. I just... wish I could see what they see."

"What are you looking for in love?" Kurenai asked me then. "Tell me: what's your favorite love song?"

"Mine," I said immediately. I was sheepish, embarrassed. "You know," I added, shrugging, and sang softly, "_Braced myself for the goodbye, 'cause that's all I've ever known, then you took me by surprise, you said 'I'll never leave you alone'."_

Kurenai smiled. "Well," she said, "doesn't that just say it all?"

"I'm kind of a romantic," I admitted. "I read lots of fantasy romance. I daydream about things like that - all the time."

We talked about other things. Favorite music (Panic! At the Disco came up), the wonders of chocolate and warm baths. We traded favorite shampoo and body wash scents - my personal favorite was apple blossom, warm and wholesome and softly floral. Kurenai-sensei gave me period cramping tips. She told me what to do when a guy dismisses you for being a girl (prove him wrong through your actions, maybe show off a little and add an extra dose of intimidation), and what to do when a guy won't take no for an answer (remove yourself from the situation, and if he doesn't let you, knee him in the crotch and punch him in the nose). Then Kurenai had us stand up and she taught me ways to maneuver in taijutsu to take advantage of being more agile and less muscular than my male teammates.

It was actually a great evening. I wondered if this was what it would be like to have a big sister.

And then the next morning came the day of the tournament.


	10. Chapter 10

10.

I woke up early and was immediately busy with other things, which was a blessing because when I had other things to do I wasn't nervous to the point of queasy. I got my sleeping bag and overnight pack together and hurried back to my house to get ready. I had a quick breakfast and a shower, put on my dark reddish brown kunoichi dress and equipment, tied my hair up in its bun. I gazed at myself in the mirror for a moment. I looked as I usually did, only a little pale and wan with shadows under my eyes. Hopefully no one in the stadium would notice.

_The stadium. _Jesus.

I went downstairs and kissed my parents goodbye. They each wished me good luck and said they'd be watching in the stands. (Sasuke would also be in the stands, watching, as would Hinata, Kiba, and Ino. I wasn't sure about Lee and TenTen, because I hadn't spoken to Lee since the day before yesterday.) It felt a little strange to be giving my parents my love, not at all like I was a ninja who might be going off to die.

I stopped by a cafe and had a tea. I had to wait for the stands to fill before it was time to meet by the stage doors to go inside the stadium myself. I sipped reflexively, clutching my cup like I was an addict and it was a bag full of my drugs. Everyone around me was moving past me toward the stands, or was about to be moving in that direction. Excited chatter surrounded me and filled me. Everyone was looking forward to a good show. Would I be able to provide that for them? Would I be able to live up to Kakash-sensei's and Kurenai-sensei's expectations of me, let alone the judges'?

At last, I got up and walked slowly through the village streets to the stadium doors. All the other examinees were already assembled behind them, except for Naruto, who had not gotten back yet with Kakashi. I was a little worried. Would they make it in time?

Everyone else looked vicious and contemptuous, so I went to stand beside Shikamaru and Chouji, who were there together. "Where's your teammate?" Shikamaru asked.

"He was off training outside the village this month with Kakashi-sensei," I said worriedly. "I don't know where they are..."

Shikamaru sighed. "This is all so troublesome."

"I'm scared," Chouji admitted.

"If you win, you'll be in for the biggest feast of your life," said Shikamaru. "Just think of the food, man."

I caught Gaara's gaze - he was watching me expressionlessly again. I made a face at him, flipping him off, and a humorless smile flitted across his gaunt features. He looked away, amused in his own jaded, vicious way.

"Lunatics," I heard Shikamaru mutter. "Both of you. A couple of lunatics."

I'd gotten Gaara to look away, so I was satisfied.

All of a sudden, a bang echoed, a stream of smoke filling the air above the stadium. That was our cue to come inside. The doors were pulled open and, shaking, I walked out onto the arena floor alongside the other contenders to a stadium full of loud cheers.

Now that it was happening, the nervousness faded away, to be replaced by an anticipatory, strained, on edge sort of feeling. This was how it had always been, during practical tests or in Academy spars. We were assembled in one line on the dirt floor of the stadium, a new examiner standing before us. The crowds around us were very loud. I could see seats for the Hokage and the Kazekage raised high up above the rest of the audience. Naruto still hadn't arrived.

"Everyone show your faces to the crowds," said the examiner, a tall, casual man with long brown hair and a senbon needle in place of a toothpick hanging out of his mouth. "You're the main event."

He turned around and stood with us, at attention. And we just stood there and let people take their pictures and have their fill. It was strangely embarrassing. I wasn't sure if I should be smiling or looking serious.

Then my teammates made an entrance in the most extravagant way possible. Kakashi and Naruto jumped from the top of the stands and straight over the heads of the crowd to leap down onto the stadium floor. There were gasps and applause; a chorus of murmurs broke out among the audience, because standing there was one Uzumaki Naruto.

He looked different. That was the first thing I noticed. Kakashi had traded in his jumpsuit for a dark jacket and pants, with only an orange T-shirt on underneath. He looked more like a ninja, but somehow less like the Naruto I'd always known and loved. Then he grinned, bright and confident, and the cameras flashed. Kakashi was there with him, faux casual. I could practically picture Sasuke glowering in envy.

"Geez, they make quite a picture, don't they?" Shikamaru asked, and he was not the only examinee who seemed somewhat annoyed at being showed up. Oh well. I guessed we weren't here to make friends.

"Really, Kakashi?" I heard the examiner mutter. Kakashi shrugged, unapologetic.

I hurried over to them. "Late much?" I asked, putting a hand on my hip and smirking. "So, how did it go?"

"Great!" said Naruto eagerly. "He was a slave driver!"

"Naruto has an impressive ability not to pass out," said Kakashi.

"But Sensei," I said, noticing, "you're injured." There was a bandage around his shoulder and upper arm.

Kakashi shrugged. "Naruto got a little feral. We almost had to put him down."

"Ah, screw you. After all that time together? No love."

But I knew what that really meant. Naruto's demon had hurt Kakashi. "Did it all turn out okay, though?" I asked, trying to seem like I was kidding.

"Oh," said Kakashi vaguely, "I think it was definitely worth our while." That sounded distinctly dangerous.

"I'm looking forward to your fight," I said, grinning.

"And I'm looking forward to yours," said Naruto. "I'm terrified by all that freaky shit you learned from Kurenai."

"Ha! As you should be!"

"Hey, you two, get in line. Kakashi, go sit in the stands," said the examiner in annoyance at last. We went to go stand in line next to each other and Kakashi left to find Sasuke.

Once we were close together, I leaned over to Naruto and whispered in his ear, "Gaara tried to kill Lee in his hospital room." Naruto's eyes widened and he looked over at me. "We caught him at it. He said he holds a demon, too," I added, even softer, so no one would be able to hear but us. "He's been alone all his life and his father's always trying to kill him. That's why he is the way he is."

Naruto looked stunned, caught by this in a way I hadn't been, because he could relate. After a moment, he stood straight, his face darkening. He looked, quite honestly, like he wanted to kill a bitch. Naruto nodded in thanks to me for the information, so cold he almost reminded me of Sasuke.

The Hokage moved from his chair to stand in front of a microphone and speak to the audience. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming to Konohagakure's Chuunin Selection Exam! We will now begin the main matches with those who have passed the preliminary exam! Please enjoy watching." He sat back down, to some applause.

The replacement examiner stepped up, talking to us examinees. "Listen up! Please note that the landscape for your fighting has changed." It had. There were stone walls all around us, the stands raised up above the walls and far away. The floor was earth, and there were trees and bushes around the perimeter. "With that said, the same rules apply as in the preliminaries: namely, that there aren't any. The match will only end if someone is dead, unconscious, or surrenders. But if I decide that the match is over, I _will _stop the match. Don't fight me on that. Got it?

"The first match is Uzumaki Naruto vs Hyuuga Neji. Everyone else, you're going to wait up _there_."

He pointed to a balcony raised high above the edge of the field, accessed from a tunnel and then a staircase. The idea of going down a dark, creepy tunnel alongside lots of people whose goal in the next twenty four hours was to kill me aside, at least it hadn't been me going first.

* * *

When I saw the view out of the whole field from the balcony, I realized this seat was actually very convenient. I was close enough to see and hear what was going on, but far enough away that I could see the whole expanse of the field and I wouldn't be hurt. They'd made it easy for us to scope out the competition.

Naruto and Neji had stayed on the field, facing each other. Naruto was unusually serious, glaring. This was no laughing matter for him - this was personal. Neji was calm, cool, and confident. He didn't expect to be beaten, didn't know much about Naruto aside from what he'd seen in the preliminary, and seemingly had no idea Naruto was in any way emotionally involved with Hinata.

The examiner looked from one to the other. "First match..." he said, "begin!" And he jumped back.

"Go, Naruto, beat him!" I was unable to repress the shout, jumping a little on my feet. I saw some of my fellow examinees look at me sideways. Perhaps they considered my cheering unsightly. I decided in that moment that I did not care.

Neji and Naruto each got into a stance. "You should surrender," said Neji calmly. "You will lose."

Naruto snarled. "Fuck you." Neji's eyes narrowed.

Neji activated his Byakugan eyes, the temples around the pupil-less silver bulging with chakra. Naruto made a hand seal and sent a whole host of Kage Bunshin to run at Neji. Meanwhile, Naruto himself hung back, watching. It was almost as if he were testing Neji's abilities out.

Neji fought with the clones, standard hand to hand against Jyuuken. There were more of the Narutos and they were all good at taijutsu, so all things considered it was alarming how fast Neji moved through them. In under five minutes, they were all gone, Neji with hardly a scratch on him, and then Neji charged swiftly at the real Naruto, hands poised for a strike.

Naruto did not let Neji get near him. He made an unfamiliar set of hand seals and did a water spell, shooting a jet of boiling water straight at Neji. Then Neji turned and started spinning, emitting chakra from all over his body, in a special Hyuuga move called Kaiten that only the most talented could do. The spun chakra being emitted in the air acted as an impenetrable shield against any sort of attack. All the water went right off the shield of the Kaiten, flying away harmlessly into the air. Slowly, Neji stopped, coming around to face Naruto again.

Naruto seemed to be thinking, hard. He still hadn't approached Neji to actually touch him.

"There is nothing that can best me," Neji predicted, still cool and eerily calm. "You have been fated to lose this match. I have been fated to win."

"You're really big on fate," Naruto noted, puzzled.

"Our fates are decided at birth," said Neji.

"Yeah," said Naruto, "you know, I don't buy that so much." There was sarcasm to his voice. "My parents died the day I was born, in the Kyuubi attack. If we were fated at birth, I'd be dead."

Neji barely blinked. "Then your parents were fated to die," he said, "and you, fated to live."

Naruto's eyes narrowed, and for the first time he looked angry. "You know what? You're kind of an asshole," he said at last.

Neji frowned. "I speak the truth," he responded sharply.

"You speak _your _truth," Naruto corrected him.

Neji paused for a moment. "Yes," he said, and then he sounded bitter, "that is correct. I speak mine. Do you want to know my truth?

"_The Hyuuga have a secret ninja technique that is passed on from generation to generation through the head family. It is known as the cursed seal technique. The cursed seal is in the symbol of a caged bird. It is a symbol of those who are bound within an inescapable destiny. _

"_One day, when I was four, this detestable seal was carved into my forehead using the cursed seal technique. That day, a big festival was going on within the village of Konoha. Because on that same day, the Hidden Village of Cloud, which had been at war with Konoha for a long time, had their ninja come to Konoha to conclude a peace treaty. All the clans came out in celebration._

"_All except the Hyuuga. Because that day was the long awaited day when the head family's successor, Hyuuga Hinata-sama, was turning three. _

"_My father, Hyuuga Hizashi, and Hinata-sama's father, Hyuuga Hiashi-sama, were born as twin brothers. But Hinata-sama's father, Hiashi-sama, was born first. He became a head family member. And my father, born second, became a branch family member, branded with the cursed seal. I was branded with my own cursed seal on the day the head family's successor turned three._

"_This seal on my forehead is not a decoration. As a branch family member, I was always told by my father that I must live to protect Hinata-sama and the ability of the Hyuuga. That was my duty as a branch family member. But when we go against this duty, the results can be grave. _

"_The first time I ever saw the seal activated, father and I were watching Hiashi-sama teach Hinata-sama Jyuuken moves. Hinata-sama kept getting them wrong. My father, who knew I could do better, glared at Hinata-sama. Hiashi-sama felt an intent to kill and activated my father's caged bird seal. My father began screaming, writhing on the ground in pain, his seal glowing green. Hiashi-sama told my father this was the only time he would forgive such a thing, and not to forget his fate._

"_When a head family member forms a certain seal, the branch family member's brain is invaded, and their brain cells are destroyed one by one. To be put under the seal for too long can lead to insanity, and even death. The cursed seal only disappears after the branch family member is dead, and upon death it seals up the Byakugan._

"_You see, the Hyuuga bloodline limit is a rare and powerful ability. All sorts of people are after its secret. So the branch family was created. Through the cursed seal, the branch family is kept subservient to the main family and is only meant to protect the main family. The branch family exists so the main family can prosper. Thus, the Byakugan is always protected. _

"_Because of this, my father was killed by the main family._

"_You see, one night, Hinata-sama was almost kidnapped by someone. Hiashi-sama caught the perpetrator leaving the clan compound, and immediately killed him. The man was discovered later to be Kumo's head ninja, having just finished concluding the peace treaty with Konoha. Kumo wanted the secrets of the Byakugan. Kumo claimed that Konoha had broken the treaty by killing one of their ninja, and made an unfair demand in exchange for keeping the peace. To avoid war, Konoha gave in to the demand. Kumo wanted the dead body of a main Hyuuga family member - in other words, the body of Hiashi-sama. Konoha agreed, and war was averted. All because of the double of Hiashi-sama that was sent in Hiashi-sama's place -_

"_The body of my father, with its sealed Byakugan._

"_The only reason my father is dead and Hiashi-sama is alive is because of the simple fate of birth: one was born before the other. Everything is decided by fate, by birth - including strength, and weakness._

"_I was fated to be strong and yet be a branch family member. To be fated... to carry a seal that can never be removed... you know nothing of what that means!" _

Neji was breathing sharply, his face twisted, by the time he was finished.

It was an awful story. But I realized Neji was wrong. Naruto _did_ know what it was like to be fated with a seal that could never be removed. He just couldn't say anything. I met Sasuke's eyes across the stadium, and he looked as solemn as I did. Kakashi was quiet.

Naruto stood there, teeth gritted, hands clenched into fists for a moment. Then he seemed to lose his head completely! He charged at Neji, throwing a barrage of weapons that Neji immediately went to block with Kaiten. I was horrified for a moment, wondering if Naruto was going to just run into one of Neji's deadly close range attacks -

But the minute Neji went into Kaiten, Naruto stopped, made a hand seal, and put his hands to the earth. There was a pause - had the spell not worked? - but then I realized Neji's Kaiten was slowly sinking further and further down into a deep hole, like it was a drill... Naruto stood, made a different hand seal, and threw a sharp jet of wind straight at Neji's Kaiten. And this, I realized, was clever, because the only element the Kaiten did not keep out was air - instead, it relied on air, the chakra mingling with it in order to form the shield. The minute the jet of wind shot at Neji's shield, it shuddered and Neji was thrown off balance. He'd been spinning so fast that he began to fall...

And then Naruto put his hands to the earth again and the earth closed up around Neji, burying him. I recognized that spell - Orochimaru had used it on me. In a moment, all I could see of Neji above the earth was his face.

Neji's eyes popped open, and not all the Byakugan in the world could save him from having been subdued. I saw rage pass across his eyes for a moment - rage, and disbelief.

Naruto walked up to Neji then, not a scratch on him. "I pretended to lose my temper," Naruto said, his eyes narrowed dangerously, sharp anger flaring within them. "That's what you expected me to do, right? Shout and run at you?"

"Why haven't you killed me?" Neji demanded.

"Because I don't want to, asshole," Naruto snapped, and for the first time Neji looked surprised, shutting his mouth. "Now, you're going to listen to me, because I have something I want to say.

"You blame a lot of the horrible shit that's happened to you on fate. And that's fine, it's a natural response. But what's not okay is when you go and use the horrible shit that's happened to you as an excuse to hurt a nice girl like Hinata. And, before you get all hissy, because I see you about to, no I don't give a flying _fuck _that she's from the main family. I think you were just using your fight with her as an excuse to try to defy this fate you supposedly believe in so much!"

Neji was dead silent.

"Now, you're wrong. Strength and weakness are not set at birth. They aren't black and white. 'This person's born weak, that person's born strong, that's just the way it is.' Huh-uh. Doesn't work like that. You want to know something? I was a complete failure in the Academy. Nearly didn't graduate. And I know for a fact you were the top rookie of your graduating class, and I just beat you. How? I used to be the class clown in class, and someone kindly pointed out to me that treating a fight like a prank would help me strategize better. So even though I _was_ weak, the potential to be strong was there in me the whole time."

I smiled.

"And Hinata's the exact same way. That kindness all you assholes keep ragging on her about? It would be a hell of a thing in diplomacy, which as I understand it is something all you stuffy stick-up-the-butt people really seem to care about. Fuck if I know why, but you do."

There were some chuckles, and I realized a whole audience full of people was listening - including the Hyuuga.

"So people can change, fuck face, alright? And I'm formally informing you that I just beat you on behalf of Hyuuga Hinata, who has the remarkable ability to make good friends. Maybe learn something from her."

Naruto turned to leave, and then he paused. "Oh, yeah. And I'll put 'change the Hyuuga clan' on my list of things to do after I make Hokage."

And then, with a speech that had been as long as his actual fight, Uzumaki Naruto walked away from a buried Hyuuga Neji, completely uninjured. And that was that.

"Since his opponent can no longer move, the victor is Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto never even had to use his demon at all. I realized I was very proud of him. That had been... perfect.

Naruto paused, looking for Hinata in the stands. He saw her, and smiled at her. Hinata stood up and started cheering. And then I thought, _Ah, fuck it, _and I started cheering too. I saw Sasuke, caught between envy, amusement, and genuine respect, start applauding from his place in the stands. Kakashi was clapping. And then everybody in the stands was clapping, a round of applause for the village troublemaker, Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto paused, his eyes widening in awe - and then he grinned and started hamming it up a little, bowing and blowing kisses to the audience, and even as my fellow stuffy examinees rolled their eyes the audience laughter and applause increased.

I saw the examiner mutter something to Hyuuga Neji as he was unearthed from the ground by officials. I was never sure what it was the examiner said, but Neji seemed quiet, humbled. Even his anger and resentment were muted. And for some reason, he was a lot less of an asshole after that.

* * *

Naruto made it back up the stairs. He leaped up beside me, grinning. "So?! Was I awesome or was I awesome?!"

"Nice to know it hasn't all gone to your head," I said in amusement. Then: "Congratulations, Naruto. Seriously."

"Yeah, when did _you _get _good? _Are the only people here who don't know what they're doing _me and Chouji?" _asked Shikamaru disbelievingly.

"I really hope I don't have to fight you," Chouji admitted.

Naruto swelled with pride.

* * *

"The next match is Temari vs Kankurou," the examiner called. "Fighters, please come down to the floor."

I'd sort of been looking forward to this one - teammates and siblings fighting each other. But Temari and Kankurou looked at each other, and then as one they said, "We surrender." The examiner seemed exasperated and everyone else was surprised.

On the surface, the surrender was very touching. _Aww, _I might have thought a few months ago, _they don't want to fight each other. _But becoming a ninja had forced me to become better at reading people, and Temari and Kankurou seemed... nervous. Shifty.

Now that I thought about it, it _was _kind of weird. They had all month to give up and just not show up to the match, and they chose now of all moments to surrender? And there was no hesitation; their surrender was perfectly synchronized, as if predetermined.

Surely they wanted to be considered for Chuunin. It couldn't be that they'd never sparred with each other before. That was all they'd really have to do at this point, is spar. One of them could at least have surrendered and offered up to the other the honor of winning.

Yes, it was decidedly odd. What were Kankurou and Temari up to?

* * *

"Akadou Yoroi vs Akimichi Chouji," the examiner called, "please come down to the floor!"

"What? I didn't think I'd have to go next!" said Chouji in a clear state of panic.

"Just do your best," said Shikamaru, and Naruto clapped Chouji on the back.

"You'll do great," Naruto said. Chouji seemed to find this assurance intimidating instead of comforting.

So Chouji and Yoroi went down to the floor. This match didn't last very long. Chouji swelled, turning into his meat tank, and rolled forward to steam roll Yoroi. Yoroi leaped out of the way, waited until Chouji had stopped rolling in confusion (he couldn't see while attacking), and then jumped on top of Chouji.

"It's over," Shikamaru sighed. "Usually, Chouji's attack is done in conjunction with mine and Ino's attacks, which keep the enemy in place."

Yoroi slowly drained away Chouji's chakra, jumping whenever Chouji rolled like he was balancing on top of a ball. There was some laughter from the audience - it _did _look ridiculous - and Yoroi flushed, angry, and started draining the chakra away faster. Chouji slowly deflated and returned to his normal size, unconscious, with Yoroi standing on top of him draining away the chakra still.

This examiner was quicker than Hayate had been. "The fight's over, break it up," he said sharply, moving forward in annoyance. "Winner: Akadou Yoroi."

There was another round of applause, Yoroi left the field, and Chouji was taken away on a medic stretcher with chakra exhaustion.

"Nara Shikamaru vs Haruno Sakura. Fighters, please come down to the floor."

I felt a jump in the pit of my stomach. It was my turn.

* * *

"I really don't want to do this," Shikamaru admitted from beside me. I looked around at him. He _did_ seem reluctant.

"Let's just try to have a good fight," I said. "It's not like we have to kill each other or anything."

"Yeah, but I doubt I'll be able to defeat you," said Shikamaru. I didn't take this to heart. Caution was always best.

We walked past the other examinees, down the stairs and onto the floor. I could hear Naruto cheering for me, loudly and obnoxiously, with enormous enthusiasm. All sorts of people had to be watching me right now: not only important people and exam judges, but Sasuke, Kakashi, Kurenai, Ino, Hinata, Gaara and his siblings, and possibly even Lee and TenTen. My parents were there, too.

As I walked to stand in front of Shikamaru with the examiner, I put my hand in my equipment pouch as if rifling through to check for equipment. From there, I made a hand seal and began to weave the genjutsu around us.

"Begin!" the examiner called, and stepped back.

We paused for a moment, staring at each other. Then, my genjutsu complete, I jumped back. I was invisible - no one could see me - and the illusory me I had standing in my place had not moved from her place staring intensely at Shikamaru. Shikamaru didn't take his eyes off my illusory self, and no one in the stands seemed to notice anything. So far, so good.

I snuck around silently and got next to Shikamaru, careful even to breathe not too loudly for fear he might hear me. I had my illusory self charge at Shikamaru suddenly from the front, taking a kunai out so her hand could be seen doing something from the equipment pouch. Shikamaru sighed. "Easy," he said, and made the hand seals to do his shadow catching spell -

Halfway through the spell casting, I swept his legs and he fell flat on his back for no apparent reason. My illusory self paused in confusion. There was laughter from the audience. I wondered if they'd be laughing in a couple of minutes.

"What the hell was that?" Shikamaru asked, sitting up on his elbows. I kicked him in the face, his head snapping back, and the audience gasped. I felt a moment of guilt that I tried hard to quash.

Shikamaru jumped back and moved away from that spot, sensing it was where the attacks were coming from. He glared at Illusory Sakura. "How are you doing that?!"

Illusory Sakura frowned. "Shikamaru, I don't know what's going on! What are you talking about?" She seemed angry, panicked.

But Shikamaru must have been smarter than I gave him credit for, because his eyes narrowed. "I don't believe that act," he said. "It's you. Look, I don't want to have to hit a girl, so can we just -"

The real me, invisible, jumped forward and kneed him in the stomach. Shikamaru doubled over and gasped as all the air rushed out of him.

"Damnit," he said at last, "no matter how you're doing it -!" He made a hand seal and his shadow stretched out to catch...

His shadow slipped right through the illusory shadow and back harmlessly. Shikamaru's eyes widened and I heard a few confused exclamations.

Illusory Sakura blinked innocently - and then she smirked. "What's wrong, Shikamaru?" she asked. "Spell problems?"

"This - this is part of that freaky thing you did against that Gaara kid, isn't it?" said Shikamaru, backing up warily, his eyes roving all around him for some invisible assailant. I chanced another glance around me. Sasuke's eyes had widened, Gaara looked transfixed and intent, Naruto was the picture of bewilderment.

Kurenai had smiled.

Shikamaru threw a knife at Illusory Sakura, who jumped out of the way just to make things confusing. Meanwhile, I was keeping more layers floating on top of this genjutsu layer. Thank God for all that chakra endurance training.

I thought about setting Shikamaru on fire while he couldn't see me, but I didn't want to kill him, so I held back. Instead, I kicked at Shikamaru's knees and he fell over in surprise. "It's changed position!" he said, and jumped away again. "But how? Bunshin can't become invisible..."

And here, his eyes widened. "Bunshin," he muttered in realization. "They're a type of illusion." And then he made the hand seal - "Dispel!"

And he fell straight into the second layer. I jumped out of the way in time and in the second layer I made my illusory self stand where I had been just a moment ago. "Caught you!" said Shikamaru, and I made my illusory self look angry and frustrated. Shikamaru reached out with his shadow, Illusory Sakura jumped back...

And then I timed it just right. I made it look like Shikamaru's shadow had caught the illusionary shadow. My Illusory Self paused, mimicking Shikamaru - that part was really hard.

"See?" said Shikamaru, smirking. "It's getting on later in the day. The shadows are lengthening." I saw disappointment fall over the eyes of my viewers -

And then my real, invisible self spun out and kicked Shikamaru in the side of the face. There were gasps all over the stadium. Shikamaru fell over in shock, and then my illusory self faded away.

"Dispel!" Shikamaru shouted from the ground, making the hand seal, but I always kept my invisibility one layer higher than the level he was on, crafting new layers all the time... so I was not revealed to him. "How many layers are there to this thing?" Shikamaru asked incredulously, and then the real battle began.

I attacked Shikamaru in a flurry of taijutsu moves - he guarded and was beaten back, guarded and was beaten back - not giving him any time to think. But then Shikamaru got tricky. He let me hit him so he could grab my arm, invisible, and hold me there while he got a punch in to my stomach. I gasped involuntarily, nearly losing control of the genjutsu - nearly - and Shikamaru said in exasperation, "There you are. See what you made me do?"

I broke out of Shikamaru's grip, injuring his arm in the process, the way Sasuke had taught me. I jumped back, and Shikamaru followed my line of trajectory cannily. It seemed it would be hard to lose him, so I made an illusory self right in front of my real self; it looked like I'd suddenly appeared to him and so he punched - right through the illusion. That gave me time to get away. I tried to breathe softly, though in reality I was getting tired.

The crowd watched, almost hypnotized, as the strange battle continued. Shikamaru sent out a flurry of kunai in all directions, as if trying to hit me or find out the place where I was. I channeled chakra into my feet and stood sideways on the stone wall just above the trajectory of the kunai, but then I noticed there were explosive tags tied to the ends of the kunai. I jumped back... the explosive tags did nothing. They had failed to detonate properly.

More assured, I went to go back down the wall to the ground - and then I paused, startled, as a shadow snuck out toward my own invisible one! But it was coming - from the kunai? And it could sense where my shadow was without visibility?

I jumped back away from the shadow; the supposed failed explosive tag tied to the kunai flashed and Shikamaru threw another kunai in the general direction I was in. I had to dodge to get away from it, and _not _dodge toward any of the other lodged kunai, which was actually very hard to do. It severely limited my movements.

Shikamaru smirked grimly. "They're Nara family made kunai," he said. "Their shadows sense out other shadows in the surrounding area; the tags attached to them flash whenever the kunai shadows become close to hitting a target. They're good as sentries."

So I had to evade all the other kunai around the field if I wanted to hit Shikamaru, which was problematic because he started sticking close to the wall, with its shadows and kunai. One thing I did notice was that - as had happened before in the hospital - shadow spell times ran out and then the shadows retracted again temporarily. That made it safe to jump in and hit Shikamaru, as long as I jumped quickly back out again before his shadow reached out for mine. The shadow's length had a certain limit, so as long as I jumped back far enough, the shadow couldn't catch me even if I jumped backward in a straight line.

I was getting tired, shaky. It was time to finish this. If only I could land a good hit on him without resorting to a fire jutsu...

Then I got too tired one time, and I _had _to use a fire spell. I didn't jump back fast enough in time and his shadow snatched out for me; so, panicking, I made a tiny fireball appear from my hand and light the space bright. No shadows around for a split instant, and that was all I needed to jump away. Shikamaru flinched away from the sudden explosion of fire, and there were screams and gasps, and Shikamaru shouted, "Shit, she can use fire too?!" He leaned over and scowled at the examiner. "Examiner, I want to surrender."

"Are you sure?" The examiner raised his eyebrows, smirking. "If she had to resort to fire spells, that means you nearly hit her."

But I was caught by something Shikamaru had revealed as he'd leaned over. He'd showed me the tag tied to the kunai behind him. There was writing on it, small enough that only I could see: _Suna's plotting something_, it warned me.

* * *

I almost didn't respond to the message - what if it was a trick? But at last, I decided I couldn't risk that, because I too had noticed something odd in Temari and Kankuro's behavior. So I extended the invisibility genjutsu, weaving it around Shikamaru as well; we became visible to each other, and a vision of Shikamaru was put in place where the real Shikamaru had been. The illusory Shikamaru frowned in concentration, looking around, waiting for another attack. Then I had him flinch back as if from an assault, craft a shadow again, and then look disappointed when it did nothing.

"You're good at this," was the first thing the real Shikamaru said. "It's actually really alarming."

"Thanks," I said, still frowning and concentrating on crafting the image before me and keeping us not only invisible but silent at the same time. "No one can see or hear us. Come over here." I crouched down, and he crouched beside me. "You're right, Temari and Kankurou are acting oddly. Talk to me."

And Shikamaru did. "I think Suna might be planning some sort of comeuppance against Konoha. They bring in some super strong psycho freak like Gaara," I winced, "and then they have his teammates hold back from revealing all their secrets in the final round? It's weird."

The wheels in my mind spun. "They could be planning something with Orochimaru," I said.

Shikamaru's eyebrows rose. "The S class criminal?"

"He's been spotted in Konoha. It's top secret. He has people on the inside and seems to be trying to cause some sort of mayhem."

"So you're thinking -"

"Maybe he went to Suna. Maybe they're his people. But why go to Suna? They're our ally, aren't they?"

"Not exactly," said Shikamaru darkly. "Well, I mean, they are - nominally. But all the clans know there's some resentment there. After Suna's treaty with Konoha, the Wind Country's Daimyo started giving Konoha _a lot _of attention. More even than he paid to his own village. So the alliance has been shaky from the start. Suna has a huge inferiority complex. Its supposed weakness could even have been why Gaara was created in the first place."

The information put things in new perspective; it was incredible how fast my viewpoint changed. "So you're saying," I said in dread, "that if they're planning some kind of takeover, Gaara's entire life, supposedly, could have led up to this."

Shikamaru winced. "And we're talking about someone who gets off on killing anyway -"

"And who holds a demon."

We looked at each other. "We have to warn somebody without letting Suna know that we're warning somebody," I said in realization.

* * *

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Shikamaru asked as we stood up, our plan decided. "You're sure you want to go through with it?"

I nodded. It would be disappointing, not being able to advance to Chuunin, but - "I can take it."

Shikamaru sighed. "I _would _take it, but I can't do genjutsu with one-handed seals. Okay. Let's do this."

Shikamaru melded back in with his illusory self; I let it go at the same time I let his silent invisibility go. I kept my own. Shikamaru paused, and then darted directly toward where he knew me to be. There were gasps.

We tried to make it really obvious to a Jounin who was trying to puzzle it out:

I let myself get caught and my genjutsu broke for no apparent reason. Shikamaru grabbed me physically, pushed me to the ground, and held a knife to my throat, instead of just using his shadow spell to catch me like he normally would have.

"Got you at last," said Shikamaru, feigning a smirk, and I tried to look suitably angry.

And then I used the arm I had let fall behind my back to make the hand seal. I'd had to let go of all of my layers of genjutsu, and then have my hand hidden by Shikamaru's push, in order to do what I needed to do next. This part was important.

I silently made a genjutsu appear to four people, and only four people, in the stadium. The Hokage, Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma all received the message, words floating in the air before them:

_Shikamaru and I think Suna is planning something._

I saw all three Jounin stand up.

"I surrender," I said. Because really, I had just won.

"Winner: Nara Shikamaru," said the examiner.

Now I would just have to wait and see if we'd been right, and hope the Jounin would know what to do. I looked across the stadium to the Hokage: he met my eyes, his own deadly serious, and ever so slightly, he nodded once. I saw him look sideways at the Kazekage.

* * *

As Shikamaru and I walked back down the tunnel and up the staircase, we heard Gaara and Aburame Shino's match called out across the field. We were halfway up the inside staircase when we heard a horrible screaming and the vicious sound of bloody nails being scratched against the stone ground. Shikamaru and I looked at each other in horror and ran up the rest of the stairs only to stop at the top of the staircase. I caught my breath.

Two corpses had been splattered in blood against the walls of the dark space just before the entryway out to the balcony. Gaara was emerging from that space and walking slowly toward the staircase, sand swirling around him. I saw an image of his two pale, terrified siblings cowering in the entryway behind him. Gaara's eyes were wide and bloodshot, ringed with dark shadows, his face drawn and white. He saw me and before I could even move the sand had thrown me against the wall and pinned me there. He got close up into my face; a snarl had twisted his features.

"You were there," he hissed. "You were really there when you - when you touched my -" He was breathing hard, clutching at his head, his eyes squinted in pain. From the sounds of things, he'd figured out how I'd slapped him.

Shikamaru moved to do something and I shook my head minutely. There was something about Gaara as he was now. Something that was even more off than usual.

I took a deep breath and tried to sound brave, but when I spoke my voice still trembled. "Why did you kill those people? Were they... were they examinees...?" I was terrified he'd tried to kill someone like Naruto.

A cruel smile twisted Gaara's features. "They tried to kill me so their lord could win a bet." Gaara laughed his high, unhinged sort of laugh. "Isn't that funny? They tried to kill me..." Then he stopped, his face working, his head seizing spasmodically. "I know," he said after a moment to no one. "I know, Mother. I'm sorry. They were inferior. I'm sorry. Why don't I...? Why don't I try feeding _you_ to her?" Gaara looked over at me and brightened. "Yes... that's perfect... she'd _love _you..." There was a strange sort of hysteria in his blank green eyes.

Who was he talking to? Did he hear voices? Or was that the demon he was talking to - the demon he called "mother"?

Gaara was still speaking, beaming, staring at me blankly. "I could go deep into you, into your insides... inside insides..." An unhinged laugh. "All warm and full of blood... _Your _blood... I bet your blood is beautiful..."

"Holy _shit_..." I heard Shikamaru whisper, backing up, staring in horror.

A sense of false calm and impending death came over me. The calm of my words was so disconnected from the terror I was feeling inside. "I'm flattered, Gaara. But, you know? Maybe we could save the whole insides thing for another time."

Gaara had trailed off in thought, mumbling to himself, staring at a place above me. Then, suddenly, he looked back at me as if caught off-guard, deceptively innocent. "What? Oh, sorry." Another high laugh. "I'm always a little _off _on the full moon."

I licked my lips. "I was saying," I said softly, "that maybe, you could let me go."

"Let you go? Why? Are you _afraid _of me?" There was a kind of glee in his eyes, but his face was entirely serious as he looked at me with his head cricked, darkly.

I leaned back, trying to get away from his face, from his eyes. I looked upward at the dull ceiling, everything smelled like blood, and I suddenly realized I was trying very hard not to cry. I took a deep breath. "... Yes," I admitted, tears swimming in my eyes. "Yes. Please. Please let me go. Please just leave me alone. Please. _Please_."

The sand tightened around me, burning, painful, squeezing. Oh God, I really _was _going to _die -! _"And _why," _he hissed, the sand shaking me, "_why _should I have to do something like _that?!"_

I took a deep, sobbing breath and, reflexively, I reached up to move my hand where it was pinned at my side. The hand moved along underneath the sand to stop at the place right above Gaara's heart, more to try to put some physical distance between us than anything else. It was meant as a shield.

But Gaara looked down at the hand on his heart as though I had done something incredible, as if I had made some sort of physical attack. I could hear his heart thudding and could feel my warmth moving into him, and it was a very humanizing moment, and Gaara just stood there, staring at my hand, breathing hard.

And then, suddenly, he snapped.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! _SHUT UP!" _

He was screaming, clutching his head. The sand was thrashing around everywhere, and I shrieked out and shot a fireball upward at the sand that was lashing out toward me. There was a vicious shatter of glass, and I leaped away, rolling away, ducking and covering my head, shaking...

I looked up.

Glass littered the floor, a part of Gaara's sand having been torn away from him; it lay shattered on the ground below. The fire had turned the sand into glass fragments. Gaara had stopped abruptly, choking to a halt, because Shikamaru's shadow had caught him again. Aburame Shino was standing in the doorway.

"Sabaku no Gaara," he said, with a brave, fearsome kind of cool which was actually quite amazing, "the examiner is calling for us. People are getting impatient. I believe your fight is with me."

Gaara paused, taking a deep breath, shuddering. Then, slowly, the sand retreated back inside the gourd strapped to his back. Shikamaru released him, white as a sheet, and Gaara paused for a moment before slowly starting to make his way down the stairs as though nothing had happened at all. The way he moved reminded me of the slow way a mentally ruined old homeless man would walk down the street: it was just as frightening, and just as defeated.

Shino walked past us, and then paused in surprise as I reached up and hugged him. "Thank you," I whispered.

Just in case I never saw him alive again.

* * *

I walked out onto the balcony only to find all the remaining examinees standing there, white and mute, staring ahead of themselves, shaking faintly. "He's gone down onto the field," I said quietly, and everyone on the balcony relaxed minutely. Naruto came over and hugged me, fiercely.

"Sorry. We did warn you," said Kankurou quietly. Temari looked away as if ashamed. I couldn't tell how my face looked.

"Begin!" the examiner called out, and he stepped back.

Shino and Gaara stood there, watching each other for a moment. Behind his glasses, Shino's eyes had narrowed. "The kikai bug sentries placed around the Aburame clan compound once found a trail of sand sneaking inside during this previous month of training," he said. "The alarm was sounded and when Jounin of the clan went to look in on the matter, nothing was discovered. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

"Damnit, Gaara," I heard Kankurou mutter, and Temari and Kankurou exchanged glances. "He jeopardized -" Temari broke him off with big eyes, shaking her head sharply.

Shikamaru and I exchanged a glance of our own and then pretended to have seen nothing.

Covertly, I checked. The Chuunin judges were gone from their seats. The Konoha Jounin in the audience were gone from their seats. If I looked close enough, I could see shadowy forms hidden in the shadows of the stadium. ANBU were filing quietly into the stadium. If I looked close enough, I could even see ninja leaping out into the village beyond from over the top of the stadium; they must be scanning the village and then checking the perimeter for any signs of unusual or suspicious activity. And now, for some reason, there was an additional guard to the Hokage, a man I recognized from where he had been watching in the audience: tall and broad shouldered, with long, messy white hair. He was hiding in the doorway behind the two Kage and the Kazekage did not appear to have noticed him yet, so he must be good.

_Hokage safe? Check._

_Stadium safe? Check._

_Village and perimeter being scanned for unusual or suspicious activity? Check._

_Higher level ninja of the village alerted? Check._

I couldn't see what else could be amiss. Whatever Temari and Kankurou were waiting on, whatever plan was going to be put into effect, I couldn't see how it was going to take hold. Even if they released Gaara on everyone -

Wait. Was that their plan?

"Your brother has been busy," I said sharply, after the pause in between when I'd had these thoughts. "He also stalked me and tried to murder my boyfriend."

Temari and Kankurou jumped slightly and looked around to me. My arms crossed, I kept my eyes on the fighters. There was no need for them to know we knew anything.

Shino attacked Gaara outright with a vast swarm of flying kikai bug insects. Gaara's shield of sand protected him, enveloping him completely, and then an arm of sand blew straight through the bugs and slammed into Shino. The following several minutes were painful. We watched Shino get beaten around by the arms of sand, thrown all over the stadium, hit painfully -

"This is boring," said Gaara at last in irritation, and he moved to crush Shino with sand -

And then paused, falling to one knee, his eyes widening.

Covering the undersides of Gaara's outstretched arms were whole layers of creepy, crawly bugs. Shino had let himself get thrown around so his bugs would have time to crawl underneath Gaara's arms of sand and attach themselves to his sand armor - because with the sand armor in place, Gaara wouldn't be able to feel them. _And the sand armor consumed a lot of chakra anyway_.

I was about to shout out - and then I broke off in horror.

Because Gaara had another kind of chakra, hidden below the first. The demon's. And I watched as it began to shape him, change him, morph him -

"Oh, God," said Kankurou, sounding horrified and disgusted. "Here it comes..."

"... I surrender," said Shino's voice, suddenly, clearly, into the silence. "I surrender!"

There were no gasps, there was no horror - nothing. Nothing from the audience. I looked across... and I saw that everyone seemed to have fallen unconscious. It was a sleeping genjutsu. Everyone had fallen unconscious, except for the ninja, who had run out to engage with other ninja in battle. Suna ninja and Oto ninja, jumping out from disguises, were suddenly fighting Konoha ninja all across the stadium. Then there was a huge explosion and I looked up to see that Oto nin had erected an impenetrable barrier around the Kazekage and the Hokage, keeping everyone else out. But then I saw that this wasn't quite true. The white-haired man from the audience had made it inside the barrier as well. The Kazekage looked displeased to see him, and then I saw him rip off his face to reveal himself to be - Orochimaru. So, wait. Where was the Kazekage?

Then there was another crash, and I looked around to see that Gaara was half-human and half-beast. He had morphed into some weird sort of animal, sand colored limbs coming out wantonly from his tiny body, and he was going to attack Shino, and then Temari and Kankurou were jumping down to meet Gaara. I went to intercept them, and was blind-sided by Akadou Yoroi, who grabbed me up in his tight grip and then I could feel a strange sucking feeling in the direction of my chakra coils, and I started to get more and more tired...

_No! _

I broke out of the grip the way Sasuke had taught me and whirled around to face Yoroi. "You're a spy," I spat, my face twisted in disgust. "Traitor!"

And then, even as he smirked, I made a seal behind my back. An illusion of Sakura charged at Yoroi, and he went to grab her up again and suck all the chakra out of her, but unbeknownst to him there was a kunai with an explosive tag on it hidden within the illusion of the running Sakura. He went to suck out all the chakra... and the tag detonated.

I was thrown back on my feet at the explosion, and when I looked, there were only crumbled remains where once there had been Akadou Yoroi. I smirked, satisfied. "That's for sucking chakra out of my friends, you asshole!"

I got up and I looked around. Konoha nin had so far outnumbered the enemy that they were spilling out onto the field. I saw Yakushi Kabuto, of all people, jump out and away from the crowd, running away over the rooftops. "Traitor!" I heard a Konoha nin shout. "Coward!" Konoha nin went out in active pursuit after him - had Kabuto's entire team been spies?

Konoha nin were coming toward the Suna team: Baki, Gaara, Temari, and Kankurou.

"Sir," said Kankurou, "Gaara's almost out of chakra!" For Gaara had indeed shrunk again, no longer half demon but just a little boy. In all the chaos, Shino had run away.

"Damn!" I heard Baki snarl. "Abort! Abort! Run for it!"

Temari and Kankurou, carrying Gaara, went to run - but no way were they getting off that easy. "Naruto! Shikamaru!" I called to them, they nodded, and we took off after the Suna team, Shikamaru swearing in complaint and Naruto charging forward at the front. In a moment I passed over the place where the other rookies lay unconscious. Sasuke and Shino were not unconscious and were waking up the others. I waved to them. "Follow us!" I shouted. And so Ino, Shikamaru, Naruto, Sasuke, me, Shino, Hinata, and Kiba took off after the three.

"We have to make sure they get away from Konoha! Then we need to neutralize them as a threat!" I shouted. "Gaara has a demon inside him; it's really powerful! They could try to use it to attack the village! Naruto!" Naruto nodded, his face deadly.

"We'll have to break up," Shikamaru called. "We'll each go after a specific target, so our teams can manage swiftness and efficiency better. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke will take Gaara! Ino and I will take Temari! Kiba, Shino, Hinata, you take Kankurou!"

"It will require great strategy," said Shino quietly. "Kankurou has his machines." He nodded, prepared for the challenge.

We passed by the white-haired man and the Hokage fighting Orochimaru inside the dome, watched over by helpless ANBU on the outside. We passed by Konoha nin fighting invading Oto and Suna nin all across Konoha village. The Oto and Suna nin were being driven right back out because Konoha had gotten the drop on them. The civilians were already safely in underground shelters.

"It looks like we'll win this battle," I said seriously over the wind, "but this invasion may start a war."

Even Kiba, who had been laughing from the adrenaline and excitement, sobered.


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Note: This ends book two. I'll let you know when book three is up.

* * *

11.

We chased them through the village, over the wall - none of the usual sentries were on duty, everyone was busy with the battle - and into the forestry outside Konoha. It took all our tracking skills to keep up with them, leaping from tree to tree, channeling chakra into our legs so we could move at high speeds. We didn't talk much. Everyone was too focused on what we were about to do.

"We've gotten far enough away from the village in case his demon gets out," said Sasuke at last. "I say we neutralize the threat."

"Yes," I said, "let's catch up to them."

Shino and Kiba looked at each other and paused. "Let's do something for a moment first," said Shino.

We paused, harried. "What is it?"

"Team eight specializes in reconnaissance," Kiba explained. "We should let Shino tag you with his bugs and give Akamaru your scent, just in case something goes wrong or we have to hunt you down."

"I don't know if I like the idea of being marked by a dog and letting bugs crawl all over me," said Ino, but in the end even she agreed it seemed wisest.

* * *

We hadn't been running again for very long when Hinata paused, her Byakugan eyes widening. "Trap!" she called. "Jump!" We all leaped away, just as a ninja wire activated explosive tag detonated below us. Then we just had to keep jumping and dodging away as we encountered more and more explosive tags, a whole mess of them nested by a spiderweb of wires through that part of the forest.

"We're close!" Naruto called, and he and Sasuke jumped forward with a single minded tenacity, leaving me swearing and following exasperatedly behind them. The other rookies followed us.

We ran forward and ran forward, only to see... Temari. She had paused on a branch, her hand on a fan. Kankurou carrying Gaara were running away through the leaves behind her.

"Split up," I called tersely. Shikamaru and Ino paused and the rest of us made to run past Temari.

Temari grew angry at the dismissal, calling out a wind spell and waving her fan, sending all of us spinning away through the trees. I grabbed a tree branch with a hand full of chakra, pulling myself up, and I looked around just in time to see Ino and Shikamaru, standing in front of Temari, begin their attack.

Ino tried her mind meld spell, but Temari jumped to the left and dodged it, leaving Ino slumped over unconscious and useless for a period of time. But when Temari jumped left, Shikamaru's shadow was there stretching out for her, lying in wait. Temari jumped backward, and at first she seemed to avoid the shadow, smirking in triumph...

But then Shikamaru's shadow jumped from tree shadow to tree shadow, getting longer and spinning out toward her so fast that in her surprise, she had no time to dodge again. It caught her this time, and Temari shook and then stood straight, her teeth gritted, just in time with Shikamaru. Shikamaru made Temari throw away her fan, first off. Then, smirking, he made her put her hands on her head and start doing a stupid looking dance. I felt a brief ray of amusement at seeing the normally cold and reserved Temari reduced to such a state. Temari could do nothing; her eyes widened as she started dancing, and then she glared death at Shikamaru, her cheeks aflame.

Everyone else gathered themselves up, small cuts on our arms and legs as evidence of Temari's attack, and we continued onward into the forest.

Kankurou was next, the exhausted Gaara lying behind him. Team Eight all stepped up to fight this time, me and my teammates stepping aside. Kankurou got out his puppet, holding it in front of him with the glowing blue chakra strings, his eyes narrowed in concentration.

Kiba immediately went for it. "Let's go!" he shouted, swallowing a food pill along with Akamaru, the two beasts leaping forward even as Shino and Hinata called out to him in alarm to wait. Kiba and Akamaru leaped upward and then drilled down toward Kankurou's puppet, intending to destroy it with a Gatsuuga, but Kankurou's puppet fired off two knives, one at each figure, and the two fell out of the trees and spiraled down to the forest floor below like dying birds.

Hinata cried out and hurried down to Kiba, looking him over. "Idiot," Shino muttered.

"The knives were poisoned," Hinata said after a moment, serious and worried, looking at him with the Byakugan. "It's circulating through his system. I'm going to have to give him emergency medical treatment."

She reached into her pack just as Kankurou had his puppet leap down toward her. Hinata could see through the back of her head, but she didn't even flinch let alone move, and it was obvious why when Shino leaped down in front of her and shielded them from Kankurou's attack by an entire wave of bugs. Then Shino began a feat of acrobatics, dodging around the puppet with its suddenly extending limbs and thrown knives, using bug shields and replacements so he always just managed to evade the puppet's grasp.

"We have to go," Sasuke muttered. I nodded and we made a wide arc around the second battle, moving in toward our target, the most dangerous one: Gaara.

With impressive alarm and reflexes, considering how many times Gaara may have threatened to kill him, Kankurou went to help his brother. But Shino leaped down in front of Kankurou and the puppet, shielding us, raising a calm and challenging eyebrow. Kankurou's face twisted, but he knew he was beat.

"Fine," he muttered, looking past Shino to us, "take him. Your funeral." We ignored this. Kankurou's horror and disgust with Gaara's demon was clear. But Gaara wasn't the only one with a demon whose powers he could use.

Naruto and Sasuke took up the mostly unconscious Gaara and we ran off with him, further away into the forest. Not even I was sure what we were going to do. I exchanged serious looks with my teammates, and Naruto looked pained. I realized they were thinking the same thing I was thinking.

Were we heading further off into the forest to kill a chakra-exhausted Sabaku no Gaara?

* * *

It turned out to be a non-issue, because Gaara woke up.

Snarling, he pushed us away in a flurry of sand, and as we took stances in front of him, wary, Gaara began to transform again. He mutated, drooling, grotesque and wide-eyed insane, slowly into a creature: as Naruto's demon took the form of a fox, Gaara's seemed to take the form of a raccoon. The killing intent radiating from the form was palpable, and like Naruto's demon, I was sure it was wicked fast and strong.

Sasuke and I nodded to Naruto, whose face twisted in concentration. He closed his eyes, scowling, and slowly fiery and deadly chakra radiated outward from his form, engulfing him, fox-like in shape.

Even as he was, even as mentally gone as he was, Gaara paused in surprise, his eyes widening.

"You're like me," he whispered. And then he grinned, a wide and demented smile, his face sagging because it was half-mutated into a demonic shape. His empty dark eyes twisted. "This is perfect - _I will prove the worth of my existence by destroying yours!"_

And then he lunged. Sasuke and I jumped out of the way as Naruto and Gaara began a furious fight. We hid in a nearby bush and watched as Gaara and Naruto pushed and shoved at each other, knocking each other through trees, leveling the ground. Fire versus sand made glass litter everything and cut into the fighters' faces. Naruto's wounds healed immediately from a sudden upwelling of chakra; Gaara's sand protected him from the attacks but then Naruto put that to his advantage and lashed a clawed hand out at Gaara while the sand was busy guarding him from the glass.

Blood spurted out of Gaara's shoulder and he stumbled backward, one giant paw clutching at his shoulder. His eyes were wide and shocked. "It's warm..." he murmured. "It's warm..." And then he looked downward - and started shrieking. "_My blood!" _he shrieked. _"My blood!"_

I wondered if Gaara had ever been wounded before.

But then something shifted - and Gaara's face changed to a hysterical kind of glee. "_Yes!" _he shouted. "_This is perfect - this excitement - my existence -"_

He wasn't even making sense anymore.

Then Gaara looked around. "Where -" he said, "where did your teammates go -? Are they hiding?" He grinned. He took a deep breath and called out, "_Are you hiding because you're my prey?!" _

Sasuke scowled and was about to say something, but I nudged him in the shoulder sharply, shaking my head. Naruto's face had twisted in anger and he lunged at Gaara again. Then I leaned over and whispered to Sasuke, "Let's help Naruto."

We started our work. I began feeding Gaara illusions so his attacks would miss Naruto and Naruto could more freely attack Gaara without Gaara managing to get away in time. Gaara's sand couldn't keep up with Naruto, so as long as Gaara couldn't consciously get away from Naruto, he stood a much greater chance of being injured. Sasuke additionally began throwing weapons at Gaara - from different angles so he couldn't see where they were coming from - to distract his sand so Naruto could attack unhindered. Gaara began getting battered about like a punching bag.

Gaara paused, looking around in confusion, in anger. "It's _them," _he hissed. "They haven't run away. Why haven't they run away?!"

He sensed us out and moved to attack us, eyes wide and mad, but Naruto jumped in front of us, defending us. "_Why do you protect them?!"_ Gaara spat. Sasuke and I quickly moved, stealthily through the underbrush, changing our position. But we kept sending out attacks to confuse Gaara, and despite our fear - my hands were shaking from all the chakra pressure - we did not leave. A couple of times, Gaara sensed us out and his sand lashed out for us again, but Sasuke's active Sharingan was invaluable and he always managed to read Gaara's movements and get us out of the way in time.

"_I don't understand," _I heard Gaara mutter once, half transformed, clutching at his head, during one of the pauses in the fighting. "_You care about each other. Hatred is strength. Love is weakness. Why - how are you beating me?!" _And then he looked upward, snapping, and jumped forward at Naruto again.

"My strength comes from my love for my friends!" Naruto snarled, eyes slitted and demonic, and he went back into the fighting too, even as Gaara laughed disbelievingly, mockingly.

Gaara retreated further and further into himself, becoming more and more unstable, less and less human. Soon, he had completely transformed into the beast, his little body coming out of the top of the great demon he had let run free below him. "I cannot sleep," he whispered, the rings around his eyes proving it. "When I sleep, the demon runs free; it eats away at my mind." That was... horrifying. "But I will let him eat a little bit of me - if it means killing _you_!"

Gaara made a hand seal, flooding his mind with chakra and forcing it unconscious. He slumped over... and a new light came into the eyes of the beast below him. It seemed to grow in size. Even Naruto, with part of the Kyuubi's power behind him, paused.

The raccoon demon began shooting air blasts out of its mouth, wantonly, destroying more and more forest, eating into the earth and transforming the landscape. It was incredible. But Naruto somehow managed to match that. He dodged all the air bursts with his incredible, demon-enhanced speed, and made some Kage Bunshin copies, each infused with the fox demon's red chakra. The Kage Bunshin copies punched out at the demon with so much strength even it flew back, and they kept the demon busy as meanwhile the main Naruto climbed up onto the demon's head and punched Gaara awake, so fast Gaara's head flew back and blood came out of his mouth.

Gaara with his sand and Naruto with his fiery fists grappled for a moment. I took a chance, and made a hand seal, giving Gaara the illusive feeling that he and his sand were suddenly bound. Gaara stiffened up, his eyes widening in surprise, and then Naruto with his superior close combat abilities took the opportunity for what it was. Naruto punched Gaara again, and Gaara was so exhausted and defeated, nearly unconscious, that the sand began to crumble. The great raccoon beast colored like sand slowly melted away into nothing.

They were falling now, the two of them. Gaara fell to the forest floor with a horrible crash, his exhausted remnants of sand barely cushioning him from the fall. Gaara lay there, not moving. Naruto landed on his feet, cat-like, moving around sharply and snarling, still half-fox demon.

I ran out from the underbrush. I approached Naruto slowly, carefully, despite the killing intent emanating from him. "Naruto." Naruto looked up, snarling instinctively, eyes red and slitted... and then slowly, to my relief, the demonic chakra faded away and Naruto relaxed, his eyes tired and blue again. I smiled, and wearily, he smiled back.

"Get away from me! Get away from me!" Sasuke had approached Gaara with a knife, face serious, intending to kill him. Gaara was trying to pull himself away from Sasuke, inching along the ground, but he couldn't move very well. His sand stirred feebly. Gaara was exhausted and confused and in that moment he seemed sort of pathetic.

Naruto said it for me: "Sasuke, stop."

Sasuke looked up, and paused. He looked between me, Naruto, and Gaara for a moment. Then he slowly stepped back, quiet. Sasuke at last seemed to have come to terms with the fact that he wasn't always the most important member of team seven.

Gaara looked angry and confused and lost, lying there unable to move from chakra exhaustion while Sasuke and I were still standing and Naruto was squatted there, at least relatively okay thanks to the Uzumaki clan's incredible stamina and the fact that he'd used the Kyuubi's chakra instead of his own. "Why...? How...?" Gaara began, and it was as if he was unsure even what he wanted to ask. "How do you...?"

"... What _happened _to you?" Naruto asked softly after a moment. He was looking at Gaara sadly, his curiosity burning. "I mean - I know what it was like for me, holding a demon. The isolation. The feeling of being called a monster." Gaara's eyes widened. Naruto smiled sadly. "Yeah," he said, "you're not alone. But you... what happened to you...? I mean, you can't always have been like this. Holding a monster doesn't mean you have to be one."

Gaara looked at us, intent and lost, for a long moment. And then he began:

"_I will always remember that entire day clearly._

"_I was six years old. I was always kept away from the other children, so I had no friends. I was sitting on the swing set of the local playground one afternoon, alone. Across the playground from me, some kids were playing kickball. I watched them, their happiness together. Suddenly, the ball flew upward and landed on top of a wall, out of the children's reach. The children couldn't get the ball._

"_I thought - I was an idiot - I thought, 'I can get the ball. And then maybe they'll be my friends.' So I made a tendril of sand - there's sand everywhere, in Suna - climb upward and get the ball down from the wall. The sand set the ball right back into my waiting hands. I held the ball out to them._

"_The children recognized me - the demon container, the weapon. The infamous Sabaku no Gaara. They reacted in fear and horror. They ran away. Everyone always ran away, even back before I'd really done anything. I called to them desperately, 'Wait! Don't leave me alone!' _

"_Ridiculous._

"_I reached out a hand instinctively, and an arm of sand moved to my unconscious will. It snatched at the children's ankles, making them trip, injuring them. The sand slowly pulled their injured forms back toward me. All I could think was that I wanted people to play with too, that I didn't want to be alone anymore. My siblings had been taught to stay away from me. My relationship with my father was cold. I didn't want to be alone._

"_My sand whipped out toward the children in reflection of my emotions, and that was when... that was when Yashamaru came in. Yashamaru was my uncle and caretaker. He was the only one who was ever nice to me. He ran out in front of the children, holding his arms up, ignoring the cuts the sand made in them, calling out, 'Gaara-sama! Stop!' _

"_He would defend other people from me. He said it was out of something called love._

"_I stopped, seeing what my outburst had done. I had injured Yashamaru. All the children were lying there amid the sand, injured._

"_By feeling too wildly, I had ruined everything._

"_That night, I was back in my room, in front of a photograph of my dead mother. I thought of hurting Yashamaru and those children. I had never felt pain. The sand had always defended me, even against my will, protecting me from any injury. I was unsure what it was I had done. I knew hurting people was wrong, but I did not understand why. So I tried to take up a knife and stab my hand. I could not. The sand protected me. I remember feeling disappointed. I was curious, to know what pain was._

"_Yashamaru came in, bandaged from my sand's cuts. He asked me not to try to harm myself in front of him. I apologized to Yashamaru for hurting him, and I asked what wounds were like. What pain felt like._

"_Yashamaru told me it was hard to explain. Pain was unbearable, he said. Hurt people became ill at ease and couldn't think normally. It was not a good condition to be in, he said._

"_I felt guilty now, looking at Yashamaru's wounds. I asked, hesitantly, if Yashamaru hated me for making him go through that. Yashamaru said that people get hurt a lot, that's life, but it's hard to really hate another. I brightened, relieved, because I assumed that meant 'no.'_

"_I said, then, that maybe I really was hurt, like everyone else. I put a hand over my chest. I said that I was not bleeding, but it was always very heavy and unbearable where my heart was._

"_In response, Yashamaru did something that shocked me. He took up the knife and voluntarily made a cut along his own finger, to demonstrate a flesh wound. He said flesh wounds bled and seemed painful, but in time, especially with the help of medicine, they always faded away and disappeared. But the tricky wounds were the wounds of the heart. Those, he said, were difficult to heal. They were no ointments for them, and sometimes they never healed at all._

"_But there was one thing that could heal a heart wound, he said. It was a troublesome medicine one could only receive from another person. It was something called 'love.'_

"_I asked how I got this 'love.' He responded that it had already been given to me. Love - the spirit of devoting yourself to, caring for, and protecting someone important and close to you - had been given to me at birth by my mother. The Shukaku's sand is usually only used for combat purposes, not to protect. But the sand protected me, Yashamaru believed, because my mother's spirit existed inside it. My mother's will, her love, was in the sand._

"_I thanked Yashamaru then, for a lot of things, but mainly for stopping me back there with the children._

"_Yashamaru said it was no problem. That I was someone important and close to him. That he loved me. Then he put his cut finger in his mouth from the pain. I took his finger, and put it in my own mouth, because in that moment I thought... I thought that I wanted to make it so Yashamaru did not have to feel any pain. I thought perhaps I 'loved' Yashamaru._

"_Idiot._

"_Going off of this newfound desire to heal, on that same night I took some ointment from Yashamaru and ran to one of the hurt children's houses. I knocked on the door, and the girl's eyes widened when she opened it. I held the ointment out to her, smiling, and I apologized about before._

"_The girl's face twisted in anger... 'Go home, monster' she said, and slammed the door in my face._

"_I walked slowly home, dejected. It was late at night, and a drunk man nearly stumbled into me. But I had the sand. I was not afraid. The drunk man started yelling at me, but then he recoiled in obvious fear and horror when he saw who I was. His eyes were cold, alien. They reminded me of the girl's, when she'd called me a monster. I decided I wanted to delete this person from my existence. So in a fit of temper, I killed the man._

"_It was my first murder. I was six._

"_I went back to my home. I couldn't sleep, of course, so I sat high up on the mansion's rooftop and watched the moon. I wondered why I was a monster - why I was the only person who was. The whole thing seemed unfair to me. What was I? Why did I exist? I hated myself._

"_That was when the very first of many assassination attempts happened._

"_A grown ninja wearing a mask appeared on the roof and threw kunai at me. My sand deflected it. Then, in a fit of indignant anger, of hatred at all the people who hated me, I made my sand moved. It wrapped around the masked ninja and crushed them in a rain of blood - that was the night I came up with the idea of the sand coffin._

"_I painted the wall with the man's corpse. As the ninja lay dying, I approached him. 'Who are you?' I asked, wary and distrustful. 'Why would you do that?' _

"_That was when I noticed a bandage wrapped around the masked ninja's finger. _

"_Swallowing, I moved forward to unmask the man... it was Yashamaru. Yashamaru had tried to kill me. And so I had killed Yashamaru, not knowing who he really was._

"_I fell to my knees. I started crying, clutching at my head. I asked, sobbing, why Yashamaru would try to kill me. I had been convinced Yashamaru was the only person who loved me. I had thought Yashamaru was different. Yashamaru told me my father had given the order to have me killed. I was created, you see, and then observed, like a guinea pig in a science lab. I proved unable to adequately control the Shukaku spirit's powers, and so my existence was deemed a danger to the village._

"_I tried to take comfort at least in the idea that Yashamaru hadn't wanted to kill me - he had just been ordered to. But then Yashamaru twisted the knife even deeper. He said that he had always secretly hated me. My birth had killed his beloved sister, and for this Yashamaru secretly never forgave me. He tried to put up a good face, tried to love me, but I... I proved... unloveable. That was what he told me._

"_My mother had not even wanted to give birth to me, I was told. Far from loving me, she had died as a sacrifice to the Shukaku process and so had died cursing the village. She was the one who gave me my name: Gaara means monster. A demon that loves only itself. She gave me that name, and the protection of the sand, not because she loved me, but because she wanted me to continue to exist and to torment the village she had died hating so much. _

"_Yashamaru gave me this advice: love only yourself, and fight only for yourself. Live off of your hatred. And in doing so, continue to exist._

"_Yashamaru opened a vest full of explosive tags, told me he wished me dead, and detonated them._

"_Of course, my sand protected me. No matter how much I didn't want it to. I think it was in that moment that something inside of me broke - something that could not survive the life I had been condemned to._

"_I remember screaming... crying... I had the sand mark me with the 'love' tattoo on my forehead, so that I would never forget that the only person I could ever love was myself. I was condemned to forever live in the hell of being completely alone._

"_And now here you come. Telling me I was defeated because love is more powerful than hatred. And I... I can't... Don't you understand? I can't...!"_

There were tears in Naruto's eyes. A hand had reached up involuntarily to cover my mouth, but I had little consciousness of it. Gaara just looked so vulnerable and broken. The robotic facade had been ripped away from him, as had the all-powerful madness. And so, I asked myself, what was left?

"... I understand," Naruto whispered at last. He leaned forward earnestly, pained. "I _understand. _I understand your pain so much, it actually hurts. There is no hell like being alone, knowing you are hated and despised. But - but you have to understand - I have people who are important to me now. And no matter how bad for you I feel, I could never have allowed you to hurt them. But don't you see? We can have friends. Because _I _have them. Sakura - she was the first person ever to call me her friend. Sasuke, Kakashi, Iruka, Konohamaru, Hinata. All of them. They saved me from that hell of loneliness. Love - that's why I'm strong. It's why I found the Kyuubi's power. It's why I was able to stop it from taking me over."

Gaara had gone very quiet, staring at Naruto. He was listening. Listening.

I decided to speak after a moment, when Naruto seemed too pained to finish. "I'd have been your friend, too, Gaara," I said softly, "if you'd let me. The only thing keeping you from that this time... was yourself."

Gaara just lay there and looked at me like he'd never seen anything like me before.

"Maybe..." I said. "Maybe you could find a way - your own way - to prove to the people of your village what a loving and protective person you could be?"

* * *

Temari and Kankurou leaped down beside us into the clearing during the silence. They were tense, their eyes hard, shifty, suspicious. Kankurou's puppet had been completely ruined by Shino's insects; Temari's cheeks were still flushed from her humiliation.

My first thought was horror - were the other rookies dead? - but then the other rookies appeared in the trees above our heads. "We felt the murderous intent leave and saw there wasn't a maniac destroying the forest anymore," said Shikamaru, almost bored. "Shino and Kiba said you were fine, so we decided to let 'em go."

Temari and Kankurou immediately stood protectively over their brother and teammate. Gaara was watching them, thoughtful. "Don't fight them," he said unexpectedly, when Kankurou and Temari went to move. "Let's go." His face was exhausted, strangely calm.

Kankurou and Temari looked down to him in surprise, uncertain. Then they went to pick him up, one on each arm, and move away. They paused, watching us searchingly.

"Go," I said, suddenly tired. "Go back to your own village." I'm not sure why, even now, but I decided to let them live.

Temari, Gaara, and Kankurou ran away into the trees. "Kankurou, Temari," I heard Gaara murmur, "... I'm sorry."

We watched them run away alongside the remnants of Suna and Oto. "And don't come back!" I heard Kiba call, and there was some weak laughter.

Despite myself, I smiled.

In the aftermath, it was discovered that the Hokage had not died, despite Orochimaru's attempt to kill him. One of the Hokage's other students, another Sannin Jiraiya, had jumped in to help his old Sensei against his traitorous ex-teammate. Jiraiya had been in the audience watching the Chuunin Exams, and had gotten the message from Kakashi about what was going on. Orochimaru got away with extensive injuries. Because of his injuries and probably his humiliation, Oto - who was protecting him and allied with him - did not wage war against Suna or Konoha. It did not really have the resources to do that anyway, it was such a small village. Konoha and Oto were no longer on speaking terms.

Suna did not wage war against Konoha either. It was discovered that Orochimaru, despite forming the secret alliance with the Kazekage, had then betrayed him and killed him, tearing off his face and using it as a disguise during the Chuunin Exam final tournament. Gaara's fearsome father was dead, as were the constant assassination attempts on his son. Suna now had no clear leader and was forced to make war reparations to Konoha in exchange for keeping a powerful ally.

Konoha was largely unharmed - our warning had given the village enough time to prepare itself.

There was one more surprise in store: Shino, Shikamaru, and I were going to be made Chuunin.

"Why?" I'd asked Kakashi, surprised and bewildered. Naruto and Sasuke were surprised as well, at our usual place on the bridge above the river. Me, the first to be raised in rank?

Kakashi nearly smiled. "Chuunin not only have to show good fighting abilities, they have to show good judgment. Shino tried to fight, saw he was in over his head despite being a worthy fighter, and wisely removed himself from the fighting. And as for you and Shikamaru... you warned us about the invasion. You saw underneath the underneath. And you, Sakura - you sacrificed possible advancement for the good of the village.

"That sounds like a Chuunin to me. Congratulations. You're the leader of team seven."

* * *

So one evening, Shikamaru, Shino, and I stood at attention in one line in the center of an empty Academy classroom, by the flickering of candle light. Our fellow Genin were standing off to the side of the room: Naruto, Sasuke, Hinata, Kiba, Ino, and Chouji. Also there were Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma, Iruka, Shikamaru's parents of the Nara clan, Shino's parents of the Aburame clan, and my parents who looked a bit overwhelmed by their present company. Pride was faint in the teacher eyes, envy and respect in the Genin.

The Third Hokage stood in front of us, his back ramrod straight, his face solemn. "By taking these vests," he said, holding three leaf-green flak vests in his hands, "you agree to behave as a squad leader should and to uphold Konohagakure's Will of Fire. Do you accept?"

He went down the row and stood before each of us. We all agreed formally - even Shikamaru, who was generally disagreeable. "I accept," I said, and the flak vest was placed in my hands.

Once we had all gotten our vests, I put mine on over my kunoichi dress and looked down at it. It was heavy, but it fit. I could see hundreds of little pockets to fit equipment and scrolls into. I had watched my teachers wear things like this, never guessing that one day I might wear one myself.

There was a general milling about the office, talking, after it was all over. My teammates, Ino, and Hinata immediately went through the crowds to find me. "Congratulations, Sakura-chan!" said Naruto, his eyes proud if pained. "I totally wish it were me, but congratulations anyway!"

I smiled. "Aren't you going to congratulate me, Sasuke?" I asked teasingly, turning to my other teammate.

Sasuke looked at me for a moment, his expression hard to read. "Do you want me to?" he asked at last.

"Only if you mean it," I said.

Sasuke actually smiled faintly, a rarity. "Congratulations," he said, nodding. "I hope to learn from your example."

And wasn't that a heady compliment? Blushing, I looked down, focusing on my feet. "... Thank you," I said softly at last, touched.

Naruto looked between us, frowning, for a moment. Then he put his arm around Hinata, who was smiling though troubled.

"Congratulations, Sakura," she said, and then, regretfully: "I'm sorry I called you weak."

"Yeah. Turns out you're stronger than both of us," said Ino. "Fuck, right?"

"Ino!" I heard a scold from behind her. We looked around. A group of parents were standing there - including mine. I hadn't seen much of them since I'd seen them asleep from the genjutsu in the stadium.

Breaking away from my friends, I walked over to my parents. "We're so proud of you," said my mother at last, smiling and hugging me.

I hugged her back, taking in her warmth and her familiar scent, tears in my eyes. "Do you understand a little more, now?" I asked them.

"I think I do," said my father. "At first, I wasn't sure what to make of the change in your behavior. But now, after seeing all you've accomplished, I think I understand... a little more."

* * *

The wake and the funeral for the brave men and women had who had died during the invasion took place over a two-day period. Both ceremonies were carried out on a calm, grassy knoll overlooking the village. Most of the village came out to both ceremonies, as was custom. I put on a short black dress and tied my hair up in a clip behind me. I had my ears pierced especially for the occasion and wore black teardrops in my ears.

Kakashi and Sasuke were late to both ceremonies and were unusually solemn and quiet. The ceremonies reminded them of their own lost loved ones - Sasuke his parents and family, Kakashi his friends and sensei who had been killed in action. In support, Naruto and I sat next to them. No one, not even Naruto, was very cheerful during this part.

Carrying prayer beads and condolence money in special black-and-silver envelopes, we were seated. The family members and friends of the deceased sat in the first row, the rest of us behind them. The Buddhist priest chanted a section from a sutra. As he did so, we each offered incense three times, in an almost calming ritualistic fashion. The wake was finished once the sutra was ended. Upon departing, we were each given a gift, of about one half the condolence money we had offered.

The funeral the next day was the same: incense was offered while a priest chanted a sutra. At the end of the funeral ceremony, everyone lined up, each person carrying a bouquet of white roses. We passed by the open caskets of the dead, and we set a flower next to the head of each person. The caskets were sealed and then the whole village formed around the caskets, holding candles in the early evening, as they were carried in great procession to the crematorium.

Later, I would go with my team and also kneel and sweep and offer incense in front of the KIA memorial, whose stone was freshly carved with brand new names.

* * *

I woke up late one night, for the hundredth time, shrieking into my pillow. I stopped, sitting upright, in a cold sweat. After a moment, I pushed the covers aside, stirring my cat, and went to get a cup of warm milk.

I stood there in the kitchen for a moment in my nightshirt, my hair loose, staring at the kitchen counter in front of me.

The nightmares had been happening a lot, ever since the Chuunin Exam and the invasion. I kept being woken by nightmares of Orochimaru's smiling and vicious attack in the forest of death, of nests of traps coming out to strangle and ensnare me, of Neji trying to kill Hinata, Gaara crippling Lee, and Gaara - Gaara caused a few nightmares just on his own. Or, sometimes, I would dream about the bloody Konoha Chuunin swarming out onto the field during the invasion. Or I would dream of the blast and the scent of charred skin as I'd killed the spy Akadou Yoroi.

I had admitted to Kakashi about these nightmares. He'd seemed quiet for a moment and then he'd said: "You're probably still coming down from all the stress of the past month and a half. Know that these reactions are normal. Try not to worry about it too much - you did what you had to do." And for him, it really was as simple as that.

I drank my milk and then I went back to bed, deciding not to be afraid of such an inanimate object. And as I gained this resolve, the nightmares came less and less often. It had happened. It was past.

And now I had to look ahead to my future.


	12. Chapter 12

Author's Note: Book three is up.


End file.
